SKRail Brake Shoes

Composition Brake Shoes

We have a long history in development and sale of non-metallic composition brake shoes for locomotives and wagons. The advantages of composition brake shoes versus all kind of metallic brake shoes and here in particular standard P 10 cast iron brake shoes are well known, namely:
3 – 5 times longer life span and thus less maintenance cost in regard to brake shoe consumption and labour needed for brake shoe changing 
Protection of wheel treads 
Silent and thus environmentally friendly braking 
No metallic and thus corrosive brake dust  

As direct replacement for cast iron brake shoes on freight wagons and special purpose wagons we are supplying composition brake shoes of UIC LL specification in all typical UIC dimensions with a medium coefficient of friction from u = 0.15 – 0.17.
No modifications to brake rigging or brake cylinder have to be made in order to substitute noisy and dirty cast iron brake shoes against long lasting, silent and comparatively clean composition brake shoes.

For freight and special purpose wagons requiring a high coefficient of friction we have the UIC type K - shoe with a medium friction coefficient of u = 0.25
K - shoes are also the right choice for shunting locomotives operating in a low speed range of 0 – 60 km/h. In this speed range cast iron brake shoes show a significant increase in friction. In order to replace cast iron brake shoes in this speed range, the composition brake shoe must have a higher medium coefficient of friction in order to reach similar brake distances in comparison to cast iron brake shoes. The same applies to on track machines operating at low speed as well. No modifications to brake rigging or brake cylinders are required.
Because of the diversity of brake shoe types for shunting locos and on track machines, we supply a wide range of UIC and non UIC standard brake shoes to meet many different requirements.

By simply replacing the old cast iron brake shoes by our hi-tech composition brake shoes which cost only 2 - 3 times the purchase price of a cast iron brake shoe you will go 4 – 5 times longer saving up to 5 times the purchase of brake shoes and 5 times the labour intensive changing of brake shoes. Your rolling stock, in particular the locos become far less exposed to aggressive and corrosive brake dust hurting the mechanics of your rolling stock. At the same time your locos and wagons contribute to environmental protection by emitting no noise during braking.  

No matter for which type of use, composition brake shoes are a great cost saver vital for economic and silent operation of your locos and wagons. Good things can be achieved easily, - sometimes.

Disc Brake Pads

We are supplying disc brake pads for railway rolling stock with the typical UIC norm pads of 400 mm² in pairs with a thickness of 24 mm or 35 mm, grooved or un-grooved. We also supply the monobloc brake pad of 350 mm²in thickness 24 mm or 35 mm.
All versions belong to UIC high friction classification with a medium friction coefficient of u = 0.35.

Special disc brake pads for shunting locos

Our speciality is the supply of especially developed reinforced disc brake pads for shunting locomotives. Due to their purpose of shunting these locos switch their driving direction permanently from forward to reverse or vice versa. The countless switching of driving direction leads to a permanent vertical forward and reverse move of the brake pads inside the brake pad holder. After a while this creates wear inside the holder and the forward and reverse strokes of the pads inside the holders become more dynamic and powerful. This will lead to a destruction of the brake pad in particular in and around the guiding back plate of the pad which eventually will disintegrate the pad. With the progressing destruction of the pad wear to the brake pad holder increases considerably and the brake disc becomes endangered too. Damage in terms of grooving the brake disc is very likely with very high consequential cost involved.
For this purpose we supply the typical disc brake pads for shunting locos type NES 400 as especially reinforced version NES 400 RE in pairs in right and left hand side version with a thickness of 24 mm.

MK-Tamping Tines

                     MK Tools – the Ultra Wear Resistant Tungsten Carbide Tamping Tines

MK Tools are designed as Monobloc Tamping Tines with ultra wear resistant spades covered at front and backside almost entirely with highest quality prime tungsten carbide. Only the Monobloc design with shank and spade forged as a single piece allow an integral protection of the backside of the spade as there is no welding seam between shank and spade. The welding seam cannot be protected by tungsten carbide tiles and wears out much faster than the other areas of the spade protected by tungsten carbide tiles. This is in particular the case on 2-sleeper, 3-sleeper or 4-sleeper tamping machines where the tines in the inner rows are exposed to high abrasive forces not only when squeezing ballast around the sleepers but also every time when the tines open up after the squeeze. The opening up of the tines leads to a compaction of ballast in between the tines mounted the row behind back to back to those in the adjacent row which creates nearly the same abrasion as the actual squeezing does to the front side of the spade. The integral hardfacing of front and backside of MK Tool Monobloc tamping tines provides an extra edge in life span in comparison to other tungsten carbide tamping tines. This guarantees enormous cost savings in operation of tamping machines and it extends the life of the machine pickarms due to less frequent tine changing. These cost savings are ideally combined with excellent tamping quality due to better ballast compaction by larger tine spades highly resistant to wear. 
MK Tool tamping tines are available for any Plasser & Theurer tamping machines, both plain line and universal as well as for and MATISA tamping machine. For MATISA, MK Tool quality is the reason to install MK Tool tamping tines as original equipment to every new MATISA tamper leaving the factory in Switzerland. 
Also for Pandrol and Harsco tampers MK Tool manufactures a limited range of ultra wear resistant tamping tines.

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