sleeper plants

Automation in the sleeper industry aims at improving productivity, achieving zero defects and meeting just-in-time supply requirements of the customers. As in the past, Patil Group has emerged as a pioneer in the field of automation also. It is the only group in the country to set up new automated manufacturing facilities to cater to the exacting standards of Indian Railways and other vendors.

The “Long Line Technology” as the manufacturing process is called, is used to manufacture Pre-Stressed Concrete Sleepers in an automated environment.

Some of the biggest advantages that this technology brings over the conventional technology are reduced dependency on manpower and substantial improvement in quality. Also, the casting time comes down by nearly 25% thereby increasing productivity. This technology helps in manufacturing large quantities of sleepers in least possible time. The regular operations of the sleeper plant such as de-moulding of sleepers, cutting of pre-stressed wire, HTS wire drawing are automated using machines.

This technology permits relaxation and cutting of the prestressed strands and shakeout of the sleepers with no movement of the shuttering, thus eliminating all problems of maintenance or clearance adjustment connected with the moving parts.

The long line system can be applied to any type of fastening: Pandrol, Vossloh, Stedef, D.E. Clips, Denik, KB, etc. The moulds have been designed and created in such a way as to allow changing of the necessary type of fastening simply by replacing the plates with the required cast and housing, the plates being screwed onto the structure of the mould.

The adherent wire system provides considerable savings in sleeper production based on the use of normal market products (pre-stress strands or rods) that do not need special processing or accessories - they are simply drawn between the pre-stressing heads, fixed with ordinary prestressing clamps and then pre-stressed.