Weight reduction for rail tools

Thorsten Mersch | 6. July 2020

Drilling, grinding and welding tools are needed to carry out minor repairs to the track. If the employee is lucky, the place of work is right next to a railway crossing. If he is unlucky, he often has to carry all the tools and equipment with difficulty to the construction site.

Therefore the manufacturers of such devices try to reduce the weight. igus offers several solutions for this. Of course, igus immediately thinks of iglidur polymer bearings, and it is a fact, plastic plain bearings are actually lighter than metallic plain bearings. But the few grams do not make a big difference.

With a height adjustment with a lead screw drive, you can save much more weight. The lead screw nut is completely made of polymer, and the lead screw can be made of a light aluminium.

Also for measuring tools there are many adjustments for height and width. There you will often find entire lead screw modules or toothed belt axes based on drylin W aluminium profile rails. The smallest of these profile rails is available in an even lighter fibre glass compound.

If you also want to replace the normal shafts on your present units, you can also use carbon fibre shafts. This naturally includes the special linear bearings made of polymer. With the right combination of shaft and bearing you can save up to 75% load. With that everything is out in terms of weight.

Of course, it is not enough to use only light materials, since carbon fibre, for example, is also relatively expensive. You can also simply save on the installation size. With the drylin N and drylin T guides you have one of the smallest and low-profile guides. These are very often used in the measuring strips. Easy to adjust and no lubrication. Ideal for use on construction sites and in all weather conditions.