NETHERLANDS: Robel Rail Automation, infrastructure manager ProRail and contractors VolkerRail and Strukton Rail are to further develop an automated rail welding robot. ‘What started as a vision for robotic rail maintenance is now translating into tangible progress’, Strukton said.
Robel has developed a welding robot housed in a containers mounted on a standard flat wagon. It is designed to weld both plain line rails and switch components, operating at night and in bad weather, without fatigue and with consistently high precision and repeatability. It could potentially work on one track while an adjacent track is open.
Eight welds carried out by the robot have been continuously monitored for nearly a year, and Strukton reports promising results. An MoU for further development was signed at the IAF rail infrastructure trade show in Germany during May.
Robel Rail Automation was launched in 2022, with the aim of using technology to improve consistency, improve worker safety and address the demographic questions facing the rail industry as experienced staff approach retirement and manual on-track jobs are seen as unattractive career options.
- Subscribers can read an in-depth article on Robel Rail Automation from in the January 2024 issue of Railway Gazette International
