It turns out the mantra “reduce, reuse, recycle” can be applied to more than just plastic bags and take-out food containers; it also applies to the industrial equipment that supports America’s sprawling rail networks.
Instead of sending used equipment to a landfill or leaving it to rust in a railyard, railroads can refurbish it, according to Holland L.P., a Crete, Illinois-based engineering and welding company that serves the railroad industry. The approach works particularly well for specialty track components such as “frogs”—the angled parts used to guide train wheels through a track switch—and “diamonds”—the cross-over structures at the center of track junctions.
According to Holland, traditional repairs to frogs and diamonds last only a few weeks or months before the components require additional maintenance. But the company has developed a repair method that significantly extends that second life, is two to three times faster to apply, and comes at a much lower cost than purchasing a new component.
The engineering company says it can provide its Holland Automated Manganese Refurbishment (HAMR) service either on-track, off-track, or at its plant. Wherever it’s carried out, the refurbishing process includes pre-weld material removal using plasma cutting, robotically controlled welding procedures to build back the damaged area, and finish grinding to bring components back to OEM (original equipment manufacturer) specifications.
