Under Sleeper Pads

Under Sleeper Pads are resilient pads attached to the soffit of PSC sleepers to provide the resiliency between the sleepers and ballast. The use of “Under Sleeper Pad “ is gaining the popularity worldwide due to many advantages such as improvement in railway track resilience, improvement in track quality, ballast protection and noise and vibration mitigation. But Indian Railways is looking for the use of USP for reduction in Ballast cushion up to100 mm. For this requirement, Patil group has come up with EVA based USP (Ethylene Vinyl Acetate with geotextile) in technical collaboration of M/s Angst+ Pfister.

Advantages with the Use of Under Sleeper Pads:

• The load distribution over the track length is better, due to the additional elasticity introduced in the track.
• The contact Surface between sleepers and ballast is increased thus the contract pressure between sleeper and ballast is reduced.
• Distribution of load is better over the entirety of the sleeper.
• With use of USP- equipped Sleepers, Cost Savings are generated by
• Prolonged tamping cycles
• Increased track availability
• Reduced ballast degradation and longer track life
• Reduction in Ballast thickness
• The material of USP is free from any environmental influence
• Smooth and better distribution of dynamic loads in case of sudden change in stiffness