Investigation of Cause and Prevention Measures against Surface Defects on Thermit Welds

In Japan, four welding processes have been generally adopted for producing continuous welded rail (CWR): flash welding (FW), gas pressure welding (GPW), enclosed arc welding (EAW), and thermit welding (TW). Thermit welding method is the most popular rail welding process in Japan. The reliability of the thermit welds is high,...