Composite Sleepers

The composite sleeper is a railway sleeper made of a new material called continuous glass fiber reinforced polyurethane foam

Composite Sleepers

Concrete sleepers have been popularized in countries around the world, but lack of flexibility is also a serious drawback. Although the wooden sleepers are flexible, the total amount of forest resources in the world has decreased sharply in recent years. In addition, the wooden sleeper is easy to be corroded. If it is treated with anticorrosion, it will cause certain influence on the environment. For these reasons, the era of heavy use of wooden sleeper has become a thing of the past. Due to the use of new materials, the composite sleepers not only inherit
the advantages of the two types of railway sleepers, but also avoids their drawbacks. Our composite sleepers are more and more popular in the world, and have been exported to the United States, India, Chile and other countries.

What are the Advantages of Composite Sleepers Compared to Wooden Sleepers and Concrete Sleepers?

The shape of the composite sleepers are similar to that of ordinary wooden sleepers. The construction and installation process is simple, and the composite railway sleepers can be sawed, planed, nailed, screwed and glued with ordinary woodworking tools. The composite railway sleepers have low thermal expansion coefficient and thermal conductivity, high anti-seismic, compressive, tensile and flexural strength. Composite sleepers can maintain good electrical insulation and stability even in long-term adverse weather conditions. The composite railway sleeper has better processing performance than the concrete sleeper. It is light in weight and can be processed into any length. It is not necessary to customize the mold for each length. After repairing the nail hole on the composite sleeper. It can be used again with long service life.

What are the advantages of the new materials used in composite railway sleepers?

In terms of material, composite sleepers belong to a kind of plastic railway sleepers. It’s made of a new material called continuous glass fiber reinforced polyurethane foam. This kind of new material is environmentally friendly, recyclable and comes from a wide range of sources. The main components of this recycled railway sleepers include long glass fiber and polyurethane resin.

1.Glass fiber in the composite sleepers

  • Mechanical property
    The tensile strength and impact resistance of the glass fiber itself will greatly improve the strength and other mechanical properties of the plastic railway sleepers.
  • Hydrolytic resistance
    The use of composite sleepers environment is open air, the possibility of immersion and flood impact is very large. Therefore, the hydrolytic resistance of glass fiber will greatly improve the water resistance of the recycled railway sleepers.
  • Corrosion resistance
    Glass fiber has good corrosion resistance. This feature helps the recycled railway sleepers to effectively cope with acid rain and atmospheric corrosion.
  • Ageing resistance
    The long glass fiber used in the plastic railway sleepers has better ageing resistance than other glass fiber. Therefore, the service life of composite sleepers can be effectively extended to 40-50 years.

2.Polyurethane resin

  • Easy to shape
    Polyurethane resin as a matrix material, the main function is to bond the fibers into a whole to fix their position. Polyurethane resin has good adhesion and easy to foam. This feature makes the composite railway sleepers easier to shape and has stable performance.
  • Thermal properties
    Polyurethane resin material has low thermal conductivity, low linear expansion coefficient and much smaller thermal stress than metal when there is temperature difference. It is an excellent insulation material for railway sleepers.
  • Material costs
    The polyurethane resin raw material is easy to get, the price is lower, the production technology is simple and mature, the molding process is easy. Therefore, choosing it as the matrix material will greatly reduce the material cost of plastic railway sleepers.
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