The problem

The rail welds play a significant role in the construction of continuous welded rail (CWR) tracks, which directly determines the security of railways transportation. Welding defects may be introduced during the welding process or due to fatigue damage from high speed trains and heavy load traffic.

The solution

The ultrasonic phased array Swiss Approval testing system is an effective NDT method used to decrease rail flaws and ensure safety in train operations. The testing system includes

• phased array flaw detector (rail version)
• tandem Scanning Crawler
• array probes with wedges
• special software for rail weld

The testing system is applicable to rail types such as 38#, 43#, 50#, 60# and 75#.

Increased Inspection Speed

The phased array electronic scanning technology is used to achieve high-speed flaw detection. Specifically, the ultrasonic probes have multiple PZT elements (array probes) arranged in sequence along the rail welds. This way, the testing speed is twice as fast compared to alternative methods, by simply performing a linear scan.