Mechanical Testing WINS has access to a broad range of mechanical

property test capabilities including the following:

• Charpy/Izod impact testing

• Fracture toughness testing

• Tensile testing

• Fatigue testing

• Creep rupture/creep crack growth

• Miniaturized Charpy, tensile, fatigue, and fracture

toughness

• Shock testing

• Indentation

• Corrosion testing

Comprehensive Rail Weld Testing Services

Dr. Thomas R. Hay Vice President

2134 Sandy Drive, Suite 14 State College, PA 16803

Phone & Fax: 814-237-1031 thomhay@wavesinsolids.com http://www.wins-ndt.com

WavesinSolids LLC

* - 10% off for more than 10 tested samples

Cost & Schedule

Angle-beam transducers are used to introduce ultrasonic energy into the rail, This mechanical energy travels down the rail and interacts with rail defects, ends, weld defects and various surface conditions.

Upon encountering one of these discontinuities, a portion of the wave will be reflected back towards the transducer as well as transmitted through the disconti-nuity. The amount of energy reflected and transmitted will depend on the size and shape of the defect. WINS have state-of-the-art ultrasonic instrumentation and wide variety of wedges and transducers to perform rail weld testing.

WINS also provide Hy-Rail vehicle mounted tech-nology for ultrasonic inspection of rail heads for trans-verse defects.

Ultrasonic Testing

Test

Cost/Test (Normal

Turnaround)*

Cost/Test (Quick Turn-around)*

Testing Time (in days)

Chemical Analysis

$490

$590

Normal: 5 Quick: 2

Slow Bend Test & Bond Integrity

$350

$475

Normal: 5 Quick: 1

Macro etch

$220

$300 Normal: 4 Quick: 1

Microstruc-ture

$200

$280

Normal: 4 Quick: 1

Hardness

$210

$300 Normal: 4 Quick: 1

Magnetic Particle

$210

$250

Normal: 3 Quick: 1

Ultrasonic testing

$490 $590 Normal: 3 Quick: 1

Rail Surface Hardness

$125

$200

Normal: 4 Quick: 1

Rail Internal Hardness

$200

$290

Normal: 5 Quick: 1

Tensile

$160

$250 Normal: 5 Quick: 1

Rail Hardness Testing (Surface & Internal )

WINS perform surface and internal rail hardness tests in accordance with ASTM standard E18. The hardness measurements are undertaken with a Rock-well C superficial surface and standard Rockwell C hardness testing machines.

The Rockwell C val-

ues are converted to Brinell Hardness values using the conversion table in the AREMA Manual.

The rail is supported on a 72” span with the weld joint centered between the supports, and central static load is applied.

For vertical loading, dial gages used to record verti-

cal deflection, are located 3” on either side of the cen-tral loading point and on the center of the rail base.

For lateral loading, the

load is applied at the cen-ter of the span through the rail’s neutral axis, and the deflections at rail head and at edge of rail base are recorded by dial gages located 3” on ei-ther side of the loading point.

Bond integrity is determined from the fracture faces

of the slow bend test samples. AREMA manual stipu-lates that the bond between two joining rail ends shall not contain no more than one ⅛ inch diameter discon-tinuity.

Slow Bend Test & Bond Integrity

We provide comprehensive testing services for

assuring quality of welds of all types of rails manufac-tured to current AREMA specifications. These testing services cover both the initial process qualification and as well as routine QA requirements.

Tests are preformed at our facilities in State Col-

lege, PA by experienced and qualified personnel. Test results are provided at normal and quick turnaround times.

WavesinSolids LLC Rail Weld Testing Services

Chemical Analysis

Metallographic Techniques

WavesinSolids provide chemical analysis of rails to identify the presence and the amounts (by weight percent) of the following elements: Carbon, Manganese, Phosphorous, Sulfur, Silicon, Nickel, Chromium, Molybdenum, Vanadium and Alu-minum

Optical Emission Spectroscopy (OES) analysis is

performed to determine the chemical composition of the rails and evaluated with respect to the standards specified in AREMA Manual for Railway Engineering Chapter 4. OES is the reference technique for elemen-tal analysis of solid metallic samples and is capable of performing rapid simultaneous analysis of up to 60 elements.

WINS utilizes several techniques for preparing ma-terial samples for analysis including metallographic preparation for either micro-structural or macro-structural analysis. Macro-etching involves taking a cross-section of the large component, grinding and pol-ishing the surface and etching the piece and then, visu-ally analyze the degree of micro-structural segregation.

WINS also provides micro-structural analysis using

scanning electron microscope and other microscopic techniques.

Magnetic Particle Testing

Weld Hardness Testing Brinell Hardness Test (prescribed by ASTM E 10)

to carry out precise measurement of the diameter of an indentation made with hardened balls of various di-ameters under various loads is performed. We provide the optics and analysis software (Digital Optical Com-parator System) for the required diameter measure-ment and subsequent calculation of the Brinell hard-ness in accordance with the ASTM standards.

WINS uses standard magnetic particle equip-ment for testing of thermite welds. The inspection pro-cedure follows the recommendations outlined in ASTM E709 - 08 “Standard Guide for Magnetic Particle Test-ing”. The procedure may vary depending on the rail type, profile, surface condition, etc. AC electromagnetic yokes are used.