Concrete sleepers are one of the most important applications of a railway track system. The impact load characteristics and ultimate load carrying capacity of a prestressed sleeper, but the fatigue life of prestressed concrete sleepers is limited.
The railway sleeper is a vital railway component that lies between the rail and the ballast. The sleepers can be manufactured using timber, concrete, steel or other engineering materials and concrete is commonly used around the world. Prestressing is the process of applying a load to a structure deforming is it so that it will with stand a work load more effectively or so that it will deflect less.
Concrete sleepers, beside their advantageous like more life-time and strength, have some disadvantageous too. Such these disadvantageous are their heavy weight which required specialized machinery during laying and installation and also their production casts, while their initial cost is almost double that of hardwood timber sleepers.
There is a high degree of reduction in cracking the areas where cracking generally occurs due to tensile stresses are placed order compressive load to largely offset this tendency. Cracking due to drying shrinkage can also be largely eliminated by proper prestressed designed sleeper. Then it is used in place where its property or the freezing thawing durability which is slightly higher than that of similar non stressed sleeper is utilised.
Functions of Sleepers
In a railway track, sleepers perform the following functions:
Hold the rails to proper gauge in all situations. I.e. exact gauge along straights and flat curves, slightly loose on sharp curves and slightly tight in diamond crossings. Support the rails firmly and evenly throughout. Distribute the load transmitted through rails over large area of ballast underneath or to the bridge girders as the case may be. Hold the rails to proper level in turnouts and crossovers, and in ward slope along straight tracks.
The market size is projected to grow from USD 104.03 Billion in 2017 to USD 138.96 Billion by 2022, at an estimated CAGR of 5.96%. Civil Engineering infrastructure is the largest static infrastructure of Indian Railways comprising of track, bridges, land, etc. Management of this huge infrastructure has to be done in accordance with the organization’s vision.
Civil engineering department of Indian Railways manages and maintains all these infrastructures. Further, it has key role in the area of infrastructure development, technological leap in various fields, high speed travel and development of world class stations.
Trains are a very important necessity of our daily life. Lakhs of people travel from here to there and thousands of tonnes goods are shifted from one place to another. Trains provide a 24 hours running and so, are very beneficial particularly for long journeys, rich people are travel long distances by air also, but medium and low class people, who can't afford the high fares of air, are totally dependent on trains for long journeys. Besides, there are lakhs of daily passengers going to other places everyday for business or services.
Automation in the sleeper industry aims at improving productivity, achieving zero defects and meeting just-in-time supply requirements of not only Indian Railways, but the Metro Rail systems and the Private Railway siding markets to cater to the exacting standards.
Key Players
· Alpine Housing Devp. Corpn. Ltd.
· Bemco Sleepers Ltd.
· Calcutta Springs Ltd.
· Concrete Techno Project Ltd.
· Concrete Udyog Ltd.
· Daya Concretes Pvt. Ltd.