Rail Standard System in The World

The rail research, production and rail adoption, which is a reflection of technological level. It is an expression development of railway transportation and the progress of metallurgical science. 

There are 12 standards in the European rail standard system, including heavy rail, switch rail, guard rail, light rail, trough rail for trams, rail welding, welding repair, forged special-shaped rails, etc.
Japan is one of the first countries to build high-speed railways. The Japanese rail standard system consists of ordinary rails, rail end hardened rails, and rail head hardened rails.

American railroads are known for their long operating mileage (ranking the first in the world) and famous for its large axle load. Different from European and Japanese rail standards, In order to meet the needs of heavy-haul railways, the American rail standard has undergone major changes such as rail section, steel grade, harmful elements and steel adulterant index, which fully reflects the characteristics of heavy-duty railways.

Australian railways are also known for heavy loads, it created a world record of 130,000 tons of goods transported in a single transportation. Australian standards are developed by the Australian Committee. AS 1085.1-2002 have 5 sectional rails, such as 31kg/m, 41kg/m, 50kg/m, 60kg/m and 68kg/m. For heavy rails more than 50kg/m, 1 chemical composition formula and 2 strength levels are specified, one of which is hot-rolled rail with strength greater than 880MPa and hardness greater than 260HB; the other is heat-treated rail with strength greater than 1130MPa and hardness greater than 340HB.

In the past, the Soviet rail standard divided the rail section, hot-rolled rail and heat-treated rail into three separate parts. After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Russia formulated “general technical conditions for rails”. It Combine rail section, hot rolled and heat treated rails into one standard, in the meanwhile, there are 11 steel grade included. In this standard, there are 4 types of rail bring in the standard, that is P50, P65, P65K and P75. The strength grade is divided into 4 grades: 900MPa, 1100MPa, 1180MPa and 1290MPa. They mentioned that rail appearance quality will classification, including geometrical size accuracy, length tolerance, flatness and surface quality. It is worth noting that the Russian rail standard still retains the rail drop hammer test.

China's rail standards for high-speed railways are basically the same as the European rail standards (EN 13674.1-2011) in terms of content and indicators, and some indicators are even more stricter.

Steel Grade and Chemical analysis(Melting analysis)