Innovation in rails

Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Norbert
Frank MSc MBA

Presentation (PDF) back

Summary

Innovation literally means "novel idea" or "renewal". In everyday language the term is used non-specifically to denote new ideas and inventions as well as their market implementation. In a more specific sense innovations result from ideas only if these are transformed into products, services, or processes, which are successfully applied and obtain a foothold in the market. 1)

Historically seen there were phases in which innovations suddenly changed the world. The evolution of rail technology has always been linked to more general technology leaps in steel production. In the 20 th century the biggest steps were:

• modifying the process of blowing oxygen through molten pig iron to lower the carbon content. This process was developed in Linz and in Donawitz and is therefore known under the name of LD process (basic oxygen steelmaking)
• switching to continuous casting for producing blooms
• the compulsory application of vacuum degassing to reduce the non-metal inclusions in rails, thus eliminating oval flaws
• the development of high-capacity technologies for thermal treatment of the rail head.

Thermal treatment can determine material properties in such a way that steels can exhibit high degrees of hardness as well as high tensile strength. “ voestalpine Schienen” offer rail steels with more than 400 brinell, which are used mainly for heavy-haul traffic but also in high-capacity mixed-mode traffic. The process and the production plant were developed further in several stages and now permit the search for better solutions to problems with a new material structure going beyond perlite rail steels. The presentation will include information on the current state of our bainitic rails.

Towards the end of the 20 th century an idea was implemented which was not rooted in metallurgy. Rail lengths were increased to 120 m in order to reduce the number of welded joints and to thus contribute to an increase in riding comfort and a decrease in maintenance costs. Only now the last European rail rolling mill is being converted for the production of long rails.

This example shows that it often takes a long time for innovations to be implemented in the railway sector. In research and development there is now only one critical factor – the “time to market”. The examples of innovations in metallurgy show that leaps only occur decade by decade, but the intervals become shorter the closer we get to the present.

When introducing an innovation to the market, barriers of different origin must be overcome. In the railway sector safety is the most important factor. Therefore each new product must be licensed through procedures which are becoming more and more comprehensive and complicated. The presentation will compare feasible development cycles with the time required for authorisation.

1) translated from the German version of Wikipedia: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Innovation