The technology of the quality polishing of the rails surface on the railway

The paper is dedicated by the results of the experimental-theoretic research the purpose of which is to provide the required quality of the treated surface during polishing on the railway. A main parameter of the reliability for choice those or other regimes of treatment is obtainment of the needed roughness with the maximum probability. For different technology it is determined by the simulation modelling which is represented as the additive or exponential models. The mathematic model of the polishing reliability which represents very important technological parameters of the functioning system and allows to create optimal technology is represented. Before the model was applied the research was implemented how the surface roughness influences on the cyclic crack resistance, on the contact fatigue strength and the wear resistance of rails. The results allow to predict the operational characteristics of the rail on the base of the obtained values of the surface roughness. Reduction of the rails roughness about 20% changes the wear resistance about 20-25 %, crack resistance and fatigue strength about 15-20 %. For providing the high resistance of rails in various conditions of the exploitation the range of the roughness reduction is chosen before. So for rails in the curve track sections the optimal roughness must be Rz = 5…10 mcm for providing high wear resistance. For rails in the straight sections it is about Rz = 30…35 mcm for providing the high fatigue strength. Analysis of calculation results of the reliability technology shoes that the reliability of providing needed roughness in the required ranges for all full-time programs doesn’t exceed 0,6. It’s not enough because the polishing technology on the railway in this case is ineffective for preventing causes of the defects appearance. Then types, causes and implications of the potential defects of the rails polishing were taken into account. After that it allowed to offer the alternative technology and increase the polishing reliability more than 2 times. Using the obtained results it becomes possible to increase the quality level of the treatment technology on the railway accounting the actual condition of rails and functional abilities of the machinery.