On December 4, after 220 minutes of intense and uninterrupted operations, the company successfully completed turnout joint welding using the flash welding technique for the first time on the Yu-Wan High-Speed Railway project, and it passed inspection on the same day. This achievement has accumulated valuable experience in the field of railway track construction. This technological breakthrough has brought railway track welding technology to a new level, improving the quality and efficiency of turnout installation and providing a powerful impetus for railway transportation safety and development.

Adopting Flash Welding for Turnout Joints

The Yu-Wan High-Speed Railway project is located in Chongqing Municipality, starting from Chongqing East Railway Station in the Chongqing hub and passing through Nan'an District, Banan District, Fuling District, Fengdu County, Zhong County, and Wanzhou District before connecting to Wanzhou North Station. The company is responsible for laying 501.78 kilometers of ballastless track, 29.89 kilometers of ballast track, installing 96 sets of turnouts, laying 107,200 cubic meters of ballast, and producing 773,000 sleepers. It is estimated that a total of 1,080 turnout weld heads will be flash-welded and 464 cemented insulating joints will be completed along the entire line.

To ensure the successful completion of the first turnout joint flash welding, the project department carefully organized and made thorough preparations beforehand. They conducted safety training, flash welding process training, and safety protection measures for on-site construction personnel, and repeatedly confirmed welding positions and rail cutting amounts using maintenance windows. A turnout joint flash welding construction deployment meeting was held to strengthen personnel, machinery, and material control from a management perspective, facilitate on-site communication, and create a green passage for turnout flash welding on the site. During the welding process, the project department strictly controlled each welding step using off-network maintenance windows and internal supervision, successively completing turnout pre-weld grinding, turnout alignment, joint welding, push-off of welding slag, normalization, joint straightening and grinding, weld inspection, and weld acceptance, with dedicated personnel overseeing and recording each step throughout the process.

"Using flash welding for turnouts significantly enhances the strength and toughness of welded joints compared to previous processes, effectively reduces welding defects, and significantly lowers maintenance costs and risks in the later stages. Adopting new processes and methodologies to efficiently, high-quality, innovatively, and breakthroughly complete the construction tasks of the Yu-Wan High-Speed Railway project is the first demonstration of the project department's commitment to 'applying new technologies and building new capabilities'," said Chen Fujun, the project leader.

The Yu-Wan High-Speed Railway project is part of China's "Eight Vertical and Eight Horizontal" high-speed railway network, specifically the Bao (Yinchuan) to Haikou and Beijing to Kunming corridors. Upon completion, it will strengthen the convenient connections between the urban agglomeration in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area of Northeast Chongqing and the main urban area, greatly facilitating the travel of people along the route and promoting economic and social development in the surrounding areas.

Source: China Railway First Group New Transportation Company