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Progress Rail Services - the seventh in a series of IoRW Corporate Member Company Profiles |
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Chemetron Railway Products Inc. is a subsidiary of Progress Rail Services Corporation (a Caterpillar Inc. Company). Chemetron has been designing, building and operating electric flash butt rail welding equipment for over 50 years. During that time our weld systems have made over 25 million welds and provided welding equipment around the world. We own and operate fixed plant and mobile welding equipment throughout North America. In addition, Chemetron built machines are owned and operated by many major railroads. At Chemetron, we are continually expanding our in-track welding fleet to meet increased customer demand for our machines and services. Sixteen new machines were constructed in the last two years and all were immediately put to work on North American Class 1 railroads. Additional machines are scheduled to be completed in 2009. Chemetron is very excited to announce the addition of a multi-purpose welding head to our in-track fleet. Following the development of DC power for in-track machines in our CHEM 110 machines, we designed a 180-ton in-track welding head that is capable of making closure welds (up to a 10-inch gap) without a separate puller unit. This machine combines the industry's most advanced welding technology with the reliability and consistency that Chemetron designs into its welding systems. The use of DC power enabled us to design a welding system to meet customer requirements for an in-track machine capable of making closure welds as well as regular electric-flash welds. In addition to improved productivity and quicker setup, our patented software automatically detects rail stretch or rail drag and applies the proper hold times for a closure weld. If no stretch is detected our normal electric-flash weld parameters are applied. This machine provides our customers with improved productivity, multi-purpose flexibility and the historic reliability of Chemetron backed products.
Our machines are electric flash butt machines that contain the most advanced process controls available in the market. Our computer-controlled machines require minimum operator expertise, just a properly aligned rail and a single push button to start the welding process. The weld cycle is completely automatic and there is NO weld cycle override for the operator. The machine produces a weld in less than 180 seconds, including our internal shearing process. Our units are fully self-contained including welding system, Genset (Cat Diesel), and CHEM-180 Series weld head. All of Chemetron's welding systems also contain complete self-diagnostic software to allow for easy maintenance and repairs and our systems can be accessed via cellular or satellite modem in the event technical assistance is needed from our U.S. headquarters. All of the systems are designed for extremely hostile environments with protection from shock, vibration, temperature and humidity built in. Performance and reliability of the systems are designed to emulate fixed plant machines. The maintenance procedures adhere to Mean Time Between Failures schedules. Every unit has complete self-diagnostic systems built in that are operated through user friendly displays. Spare components are commonly available and easily accessed throughout the world.
Chemetron Railway Products Inc. is headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri USA. For more information on how you or your company can benefit from Chemetron's rail welding products, please contact Richard Frostman at dfrostman@progressrail.com or visit our website at www.progressrail.com. Richard Frostman |
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