It is part of the company’s philosophy to develop individual solutions for special projects and to continuously invest in further technological developments. This effort has resulted in a support-exchange system enabling the exchange of elastomer supports of railway mass-spring systems.
The mass-spring system is a construction-engineering procedure used to minimise the transmission of vibration and noise emissions created by railway vehicles. It is used particularly in the construction of railway tracks in residential areas. Vibration insulation is achieved through the large and inert railway trough (open concrete trough) in combination with the elastomeric single rail supports.
So far, the exchange of supports has been very difficult. As part of the construction of the Unterinntaltrasse (Lower Inn Valley Railroad) – currently the largest construction project in Austria – ALPINE has developed a system significantly simplifying the exchange of damaged supports and thereby extending the service life of the entire system. The exchangeability of the supports was part of the building owner’s (ÖBB) request. ALPINE has mastered this challenge with flying colours. Initial tests at the Unterinntaltrasse have achieved perfect results. This support-exchange system is now being made available to ÖBB and will enable a cost-effective and an easy maintenance of tracks.
How does it work?
To exchange a row of supports, 8 hydraulic presses lift the trough plate. By maintaining a predefined bending line and by not exceeding a maximum lift of 22 mm, the track substructure is not being damaged. To exchange elastomer supports beneath a track, which has been lifted off only a very limited distance, a mobile mechanism is required that can be simply and quickly centred on a bearing pedestal. This is achieved by using limit stops on both the support exchange vehicle as well as the bearing pedestal. The support exchange vehicle picks up the elastomer supports in the defined position. This allows lifting off of the elastomer support from the bearing pedestal and pulling it out from underneath the track. The limit stops also allow to reposition the new support precisely on the bearing pedestal.
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