METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR SURFACE HARDENING OF HEADS OF ACTIVE RAILWAY STEEL RAILS Russian patent published in 2019 - IPC C21D9/04 

FIELD: machine building.

SUBSTANCE: group of inventions relates to methods and apparatus for surface hardening of heads of active railway steel rails. Method includes heating of one or two surfaces of heads of one or two rails by electron beams output into air atmosphere and moving relative to rail, and subsequent cooling of said surfaces due to heat conductivity inside rail head, characterized by using electron beams with electron energy of 100–300 keV, at that, distance L, m from outlet edge of output assembly of electron beam output device to heated surface of rail head is selected on condition that: L≤0.1×K×S, where S is the electron path length in the air atmosphere, K=6–8 is a coefficient which takes into account the change in the electron path length in the air atmosphere when the air is heated to temperatures higher than 1,500 °C.

EFFECT: reduced probability of peeling a hardened layer.

5 cl, 1 tbl, 3 dwg