Innovation 2: Design and Construction of a Standard International Fatigue Resistance Test Analyzer (PMUC Year 2024)

Fatigue Resistance Test
AREMA Standard

On-Site Problem:

Critical Quality Gap:

Less of a local Product Testing Service Center in the Northern region undermines project integrity and safety for rail manufacturing.

Major Operational Weakness:

We lack essential Northern fatigue testing equipment, creating a severe bottleneck.

Prohibitive Costs:

Outsourcing testing to the Bangkok center incurs excessively high logistics and shipping expenses.

DESIGN PATENT

Innovative Solution

In-House Tool Design:

Designed and built a Fatigue Tester that can simulate repeated compression and bending forces according to SRT Standard, AREMA, UIC 773, EN 13146 standards.

Tool Capability:

Can test both concrete sleepers and rail-sleeper interfaces (Rail Pad) under specified environmental conditions and load cycles.

SRT Standard

Fatigue Testing Procedure

Test Procedure:

The testing arrangement consists of fully assembled sleeper with the rail, the sleeper securely fastened to a support.
Applied the repetitive load to the rail head at 20 degrees from the vertical axis at the rate of not greater than 300 cycles per minutes with downward loading of 135 kN plus upward load of 0.6 times of the fastener uplift load.
The repetitive load shall be applied to 3,000,000 cycles or until failure occurs.

Acceptance Criteria:

The assembly shall be considered satisfactory when it can sustain a minimum of 3,000,000 cycles of the repetitive loads without any defect.

From Design to Real Machine

Standard :

The equipment has been calibrated and passed inspection.

Real-World Application:

Test sleepers produced by domestic manufacturers to certify quality before delivery to the State Railway of Thailand.

Time and Cost Savings:

Reduces testing time from 1-2 months to just 2-4 weeks and lowers testing cost per instance by over 50%.