China News Service, Lanzhou, February 18 (Tian Yunlong Wang Guanghui) The 2025 Spring Festival travel rush is about to end. In the south rail welding base of Hekou, Lanzhou, there are flames intertwined and machinery roaring. Large yellow gantry cranes are lined up and moving slowly back and forth. , uninterrupted lifting of steel rails. Rows of 500-meter-long steel rails are arranged neatly, stacked on the track field in the shape of a “special” shape, and the scene is busy.
Staff at the Lanzhou Industrial Machinery Section of the National Railway Lanzhou Bureau are skillfully operating various machines and gantry cranes, and stepping up welding of 100-meter fixed-sized raw steel rails into 500-meter long steel rails. All procedures on the highly mechanized production line are carried out in an orderly manner.
The 2025 Spring Festival travel rush is about to end. In the Lanzhou Hekou South Rail Welding Base, staff from the Lanzhou Industrial Machinery Section of the Lanzhou Bureau of the National Railway are stepping up welding 100-meter fixed-sized raw rails into 500-meter-long rails. The picture shows railway staff using inspection glasses to check welding joints. Photo by Wang Guanghui
Yang Xuewen, a technician of the mechanical section equipment, said that seamless rails are closely related to the smooth operation of high-speed rails. Five 100-meter scale rails are welded into a 500-meter long rail. Compared with the original 12.5-meter or 25-meter short rails, the joints are The number is greatly reduced, and the joints welded by the factory are almost the same as the original material, which greatly improves the comfort of passengers on the train.
After grinding, dehumidification, rail matching and other processes, the 100-meter fixed-size rail is transported to the rail welding work room. Here, Liu Yuhui, a welder responsible for the operation of the flash welding machine, controlled the precision computer to align the two rail joints. After everything was ready, he began to enter the most important link of welding.
In an instant, the welding flowers in the flash welding machine flew. In less than 120 seconds, the two rails were welded and connected into a whole. After the temperature dropped to a certain level, the staff kept measuring the straightness of the joints. After confirming that the welding is qualified, then transfer to the next process.
The picture shows railway staff performing tumor pushing operations on the welded joint of the 500-meter rail factory at the welding rail base. Photo by Wang Guanghui“Although a joint can be welded in just 2 minutes, from the preparation for welding of 100 meters of raw steel rails to the passing of the 500 meters of rails, it is necessary to go through rail inspection, rust removal, welding, rough grinding, heat treatment, and precision There are 14 cumbersome and rigorous processes such as straightening, fine milling, quality inspection and flaw detection. “Liu Yuhui said that the welding process of long rails is complex and has high technological content.
From the air, the entire Hekou South Welding Rail Base has a length of nearly 2 kilometers from east to west, divided into two areas, and welded 5 100-meter steel rails into 500-meter long rails. It requires passing through 7 operating rooms in turn, each operating room is each It is indispensable to perform its duties and links.
“The quality of rails is the lifeblood of the safe operation of railways.” Luo Jun, foreman of the quality inspection team, said that after the batch rail welding is completed, the “rail welding masters” on the “cold line” will show their skills and do everything they can Wuyi, using ultrasonic flaw detectors, flat rulers and other scientific testing equipment, after aging operations and fine-tuning quality inspection, checking layer by layer, conducting a comprehensive “physical examination” of each rail to ensure that it is correct, and then every rail is Give a unique QR code to ensure that every rail is traceable and every link has traces to follow.
In the last long rail stacking area, the welded 500-meter-long steel rails are stacked in a “product” shape and neatly stacked. On the other side, staff are orderly shipping the long rails to a dedicated long rail transport vehicle and scanning the code to register each rail.
The picture shows a 500-meter-long steel rail at the welding base being loaded. Photo by Wang GuanghuiIt is understood that the staff of this mechanical section complete the welding task of 32 500-meter rails every day. It is expected that more than 4,000 500-meter-long rails will be transported from here to railway lines in Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, Xinjiang and other provinces and regions, and will be replaced after the Spring Festival travel rush On the railway line, some existing railway lines are centrally repaired and maintained. (over)