Thermitrex provides for high-performance rail networks

Joint welding of tracks and switches

With our various welding processes, nearly all rails and switches of various profiles as well as grades worldwide can be continuously welded. This guarantees the safe joining of rails while at the same time increasing travel comfort and the lifetime of the rails. As an end-to-end supplier, we develop, manufacture, and supply all components for our different welding processes.

Goldschmidt Thermit Rail service is an authorized welding specialist according to the certificate of suitability of class 1 following Ril. 826.1020 of the Federal German railways (Deutsche Bahn). Our welding teams, consisting of experienced welders holding certifications of class 1, carry out THERMIT® welding as well as electric repair and joint welding to the highest standards of quality. Additionally, we provide the necessarily accredited construction supervisors to conduct the stress equalization in order to manufacture the continuously welded track following DB Ril. 826.130.

Benefits

• Welding of nearly all rails and switches.
• High-quality welding through experienced welders.
• Restoration of the original rail profile.
• Increasing travel comfort and lifetime of rails.

Grinding Technology
We machine your rails and switches efficiently and precisely using manual grinding, reprofiling and deburring machines, and modern road-rail vehicles.

Range of services

• Grinding of new rails (removal of mill scale and damage from construction work)
• Removal of corrugations
• Deburring
• Re-profiling
• Removal of rail defects such as head checks, squats, and wheel burns
• Acoustic grinding for considerably quieter train operations
• Switch grinding

Benefits

• Longer rail service life
• Lower maintenance costs
• Improved wheel/ rail contact for lower wear
• Lower noise emissions
• Preventive rail maintenance
• Flexible use of different grinding process and devices
• High availability through excellent availability of grinding equipment and grinding trains
• Rail gauge variable depending on the device.

Weld tempering of new rails.

Highly wear-resistant materials are used to weld-temper new rails. The result is you receive a cost-efficient, comfortable and long-lasting product suitable for all new rail projects and renovation work. The reduced surface roughness of the used materials reduces wheel-tire wear by up to 94 %. We offer running surface welding for use on tight bends in dense residential areas which substantially reduces noise emissions.
Weld tempering involves work on the gauge corner, gauge face, and/or the rail groove. First of all the rail is milled before new, wear-resistant weld material is applied.

We offer the following products:

• SMART TRACK SILENT for running surface tempering with ET 2000®
• SMART TRACK EDGE480 for running edge tempering with ETEKA 5®
• SMART TRACK EDGE420 for running edge tempering

Benefits

• economic thanks to high wear resistance
• longer service life for rails and wheels
• improved rail surface
• formation of short waves delayed
• tempering of all common grooved, flat bottom and customized rail profiles
• rails bent according to customer requirements
• just-in-time delivery to the construction area

Ballast stabilization and sleeper rehabilitation.

A solid foundation for secure rail operations: our ballast bonding process holds ballast substrate together in many areas wherever this is required. This enables you to reduce maintenance costs, simplify the cleaning of train stations and stopping places, and lower noise emissions in town areas.

Application areas:

• stabilization for switches insulated rail joints and deeper levels
• transition areas between ballast track and slab track
• prevention of flying ballast, in particular on high-speed track sections and also in connection with vandalism
• avoidance of damage to ballast bed through floods
• sleeper restoration on slab track
• easy cleaning for ballast surfaces in train stations and stopping places
• non-slip coatings for platforms through liquid plastics based on epoxy resin and polyurethane resin

Benefits

• lower maintenance costs with longer service intervals
• low maintenance effort, long durability
• the sound-absorbing effect, e.g. for urban public transport areas
• easy cleaning for ballast surfaces in train stations and stopping places
• high environmental compatibility, special disposal not required
• bonded ballast with full drainage capability
• also easy to work with under extreme weather conditions
• bonded ballast can be reworked, used elsewhere, or rebonded

Professional maintenance is an important preventive measure against wear caused by heavy rail traffic and serves to sustainably lengthen the service life of rails and switches in subway systems, tramways, light rail, and mainline networks. This means you work more efficiently and your network runs according to schedule – safely, reliably, and with a long life. Thanks to our highly mobile equipment, our teams are particularly flexible. They are quickly and efficiently able to manage the required welding and grinding work on rails, switches, and track where access can be difficult.

We use the following welding processes to carry out the work on your tracks:

• submerged arc-welding
• manual arc-welding
• flux-cored wire welding
• repair welding process THERMIT® HEAD REPAIR

Our grinding processes for your individual requirements:

• manual grinding
• mobile rail grinding machine GP 4000 to restore the rail profile of heads and joints on flat bottom rails
• mobile reprofiling and deburring machine RAILSHAPE ECO and RAILSHAPE PRO
• road-rail grinding machines RAILSHAPE EXPERT

Benefits

longer service life for rails, switches, and wheels through:

• prevention and quick removal of rail defects and wear
• long-term prevention of corrugation formation through rail tempering

• conservation of wheels through the rebuilding of the original wheel profile and through reduced surface roughness using our special patented material ETEKA 5®
• considerable reduction of lifecycle costs of rails and switches
• higher operational safety and avoidance of disruptions to operations through timely reconditioning
• repair possible during normal operations
• lower noise emissions
• repeated reconditioning possible