High-quality Rail Ultrasonic Inspection Device Developed

With fast growth of railway transportation incorporating high speed and heavy duty rails, demands for effective inspection of steel rails for quality assurance has become increasingly stringent. Ultrasonic inspection is widely applied by the manufacturers to detect steel rail defects.This paper gives a brief review on development of steel rail ultrasonic inspection. The most typical nondestructive inspection methods are compared. Based on the actualities in China, a general technical scheme for steel rail ultrasonic inspection is proposed. Various guiding and constraining mechanisms developed to secure rail tracking line and steel rail inspection systems are discussed. In addition, fundamental aspects regarding physical properties of the ultrasonic wave, its reflection and transmission ways as well as typical applications to nondestructive detection are briefly introduced.Based on results from field applications, problems and suggestions of the system are proposed.