Mobile railmilling machines by MFL offer economic and environmental friendly servicing of rail track.

The application

Maschinenfabrik Liezen und Gießerei (MFL) has been engaged with rail processing technologies for more than ten years. The company has especially worked on the repair of cross and longitudinal profile errors or rolling contact fatigues (head checks, squats, riffles, etc.) but also on preventive servicing of the rail track by means of the mobile railmilling technology. This established system is able to operate on all kinds of track networks. Currently the MFL mobile railmilling train is successfully operating at high-speed tracks (up to 300km/hr) as well as metro systems such as DB German Railways, London Underground and Metro Paris.

The technology

Milling is the processing of the rail by a defined cutting geometry in an exactly specified profile. This guarantees a correct cross profile after one pass only by an enormous removal rate of up to 7mm. This high productivity can be reached without the production of sparks and dust and without leaving any dirt. The milling technology does not only protect the environment, it also prevents pollution of the track bed. 99.9% of the produced chips are removed by a suction device and can be resold as high-grade steel scrap.

The advantage

Railmilling is an effective and efficient servicing method, equally if preventive or for repair, that helps the environment with noise reduction and the prevention of pollution. Due to the reduction of tool costs and auxiliary costs (purification of the track, tunnel), the milling process contributes essentially to the economic success of an organisation, when compared to the grinding process.

If errors are removed in an early stage, the rail life-time can be increased enormously. The safety is maximised and the contamination of the rolling material and the environment is minimised – all that under the aspect of the complete economic utilisation of the rail.