Case Study More Elasticity for the Heavy Haul Malmbanan Line (SE)

First major project with under sleeper pads for heavy haul

Signifi cantly improved service life and track bed quality

Effective protection of the ballasted track A Convincing Argument: Under Sleeper Pads under Extreme Conditions

Description of the project The Getzner solution

Particularly in heavy haul, ballas- an axle load of 30 metric tons run on Under sleeper pads with special ted track often reaches its limits. the southeastern section in Sweden properties High axle loads and freight ton- (Malmbanan Line) at 60 km/h when nage directly place a disproporti- loaded and at 70 km/h when unloa- etzner and Trafikverket are bound onately high strain on the track. ded. Weighing roughly 8,500 metric Gby their close collaboration on se- For this reason the Swedish ope- tons, the fully loaded trains have an veral projects with mass-spring sys- rator Trafikverket opted to ins- impressive size, measuring up at ne- tems, under ballast mats and also tall under sleeper pads in 2014. arly 750 metres. joint research projects. Trafikver- ket knew that under sleeper pads rafikverket, the Swedish Trans- Loads far beyond the design help significantly to protect the bal- Tport Administration, is respon- last. But no-one had ever tested whe- sible for all transportation mat- Due to the ever increasing mining of ther this solution would work as ef- ters. In addition to the planning, iron ore, the traffic volume has incre- ficiently and on this scale north of constructing and maintaining the ased steadily over the past few years the arctic circle before. The ideal load road network, it is also the body in and a further increase in live loads is distribution within the track was re- charge of expanding and maintai- expected. The problem is that, when quired. This was the goal behind the nance of the rail infrastructure. the track was constructed in the attempt to reduce the stress between 1960s, it was designed for an axle ballast and sleeper by enlarging the This also includes the Swedish sec- load of no more than 25 metric tons. area of contact between the sleeper tion of the heavy haul line from Since 2000 however, the track sec- and the ballast. Under sleeper pads, Luleå to Narvik. The world's nort- tion between Narvik and Kiruna has such as those offered by Getzner, hernmost electrified railway line is permitted a load of 30 metric tons. are perfect for such a scenario. more than 473 km long and is main- Despite using high-grade rail steels ly used to transport iron ore and and sleepers made of pre-stressed pellets from the mines in Kiruna concrete, this has caused above-ave- and Malmberget to the harbours. rage amounts of wear. Consequently, the ballast is the weakest link in the High frequency, high tonnage railway track. Trafikverket needed a solution. Thanks to Getzner, they In addition to passenger and freight found one. trains, heavy haul trains belonging to Swedish iron ore mine owner LKAB (Luossavaara-Kiirunavaara Aktiebo- lag) also run on the line. The heavy haul trains with up to 68 wagons and At Getzner, the message came through loud and clear: we needed to combine both resilient and plastic properties in our under sleeper pads.

Plastic and yet resilient sleepers with padded concrete sleepers. Based on the knowledge gained The special challenge lay in com- from test tracks and international bining plastic and resilient proper- experiences, Trafikverket opted for ties. In addition to the resilience, concrete sleepers with under sleeper plastic under sleeper pads — which pads made from Sylomer®. The con- allow the gentlest possible bedding crete sleepers were fitted with type of the ballast grains — are required SLB 2210G under sleeper pads from to enlarge the area of contact bet- Getzner. ween the underside of the sleeper and the uppermost layer of ballast. Impressive results

Getzner's solution for Trafikverket Since 2014, around 20,000 pad- shows that these two properties do ded concrete sleepers have been not have to be a contradiction in installed on approx. 12 km of track. terms. Trafikverket therefore expects significantly greater availability along Advantages Concrete sleepers instead of this section of track, coupled with timber sleepers a lower maintenance requirement. — Effective protection of the ballasted track When the track section between Gäl- First major project with under — Thus, increased availability livare and Koskullskulle was rene- sleeper pads for heavy freight and profitability wed, Trafikverket replaced the timber operations — Less maintenance work required For Getzner this project was a doub- — Significantly lower life le success. In addition to another sa- cycle costs tisfied customer, this is also the first — Improved track bed quality major project for under sleeper pads — Reduction of short-pitch/ on a heavy freight line under arctic rail corrugation on rails in conditions. tight curves — Reduction of vibration emissions — Prevention of voids under the sleepers AUSTRIA JAPAN oain:Berlin (DE),Munich (DE),Stuttgart (DE),Lyon (FR), Amman(JO), Tokyo (JP), Bürs (AT) Railway, construction, industry 490 (360 inBürs)Ratio of exports: EUR100.3 million Locations: Headquarter: Business areas: 2018 turnover: Employees: Chief Executive Officer: Founded: 30 metric tons Trafikverket Getzner Werkstoffe GmbH 20,000 undersleeperpads of type SLB2210G heavy haul line: Axle loads onthe Material required: Operator: 12kilometres the material was installed): Line mileage (over which Facts andfigures ataglance — Tokyo — www.getzner.com/heavy-haul Find outmore at — Bürs —Bürs

INDIA —Pune INDIA GERMANY — Berlin — Munich —Stuttgart —Munich —Berlin

CHINA —Beijing CHINA 3% 93 Pune (IN),Beijing (CN), Kunshan (CN), Charlotte (US), Decatur (US) Jürgen Rainalter 1969 (as asubsidiary of Getzner, Mutter &Cie)

USA —Charlotte USA

FRANCE — Lyon —

JORDAN JORDAN ww w.getzner — Amman .com .com