Laser cladding of rail; the effects of depositing material on lower rail grades

This paper presents a study comparing the wear performance of laser clad rails. A grade of martensitic stainless steel (MSS) was deposited on two substrate materials: The Europe standard rail steel R260, and a lower grade rail steel R200. A twin-disc method has been used to simulate the contact of wheel and rail under closely controlled conditions. Although cladding on a lesser grade of rail does have an effect on the hardness and wear performance of the clad layer, the resulting wear performance of the clad layer assessed using this approach is still vastly improved over R260 material alone.