Gravel cleaning machine

The first macadam cleaning machines were created in the USSR in the 40s of the XX century , and on the railway track in the early 1950s . Machines on the railway track cleaned gravel over the entire width of the ballast prism: the ballast was taken out of the way with ladle chains and fed into cylindrical rotating screens , through the openings of which pollutants and small (dust) fractions of crushed stone fell onto the conveyor and were thrown to the side of the track. The cleared ballast was poured into the road. The introduction of advanced technology, in which heavy machines in a certain sequence repair the way to the "windows" , required the development of a fundamentally new machine that works with greater productivity. Since the mid-1950s, self-propelled ballast-cleaning machines based on electric ballast and semi-trailers, working with one or two tractors , have been produced. All gravel cleaning machines use a centrifugal gravel cleaning device, proposed by designer A. M. Dragavtsev .

The crushed stone cleaning device consists of two closed tapes placed one on the other. The inner mesh and the outer continuous tape move perpendicular to the axis of the path above the cutting knife, buried in the ballast by 25 centimeters. Crushed by a knife crushed stone enters the mesh belt, through the cells of which fine fractions and dust are thrown out onto the continuous outer belt through the cells of the curved section and are poured onto the conveyor through it. The cleared crushed stone on another conveyor gets back into the path. In addition to electroballaster equipment (devices for lifting and sliding the rail-sleeper grid, straightening the track profile, tamping the sleeper boxes), there is a rubble-clearing device on the rubble-cleaning machine to prevent over-lifting of the track grill (exceeding the elevation height above the design). The rubble-cleaning machine is also equipped with bucket rotors , which are designed for cutting gravel at the ends of the sleepers and laying trenches, which reduce the resistance to movement of the cutting knife and wings. The single-span chippers in the single-span frame are equipped with an additional conveyor, through which the pollutants enter the harvesting compound. The conveyor can be rotated and placed across the path, which also allows the use of crushed stone cleaning machines when working on high platforms. The performance of crushed stone cleaning machines is up to 3000 cubic meters of ballast per hour, the depth of cleaning of the crushed stone layer is up to 40 centimeters.

• Self - propelled rubble - cleaning machines operating without lifting the rail-sleeper grid are used to clean ballast under turnouts on station tracks and stages, as well as on high platforms. In addition to the centrifugal type rubble-cleaning device, the rubble-cleaning machines have cesspool devices ( scraper chain mechanisms ), conveyors for the removal of pollutants, a ballast dispenser, cleaning rail and rail brushes. Used cesspool devices with shortened chain teeth (for work on hauls) and with elongated teeth (on turnouts). The performance of such a rubble-cleaning machine is up to 300 cubic meters of ballast per hour.
• Semi - trailer crushed stone cleaning machines are used for overhaul of the track for cleaning, compaction and leveling of ballast. The equipment is mounted on a frame connected to the tractor through a draft device and tractor traction frame. The back of the frame rests on two rollers. Ballast cut with a scraper knife is fed into the rubble-cleaning device by the side wings. The cleaned ballast is leveled across the entire width of the ballast with a plow planner. The performance of the gravel cleaning machine is up to 1200 cubic meters of ballast per hour.

Modern crushed stone cleaning machines raise the rail-sleeper grid and cut out the ballast under it and clean it of impurities; the cleaned crushed stone is evened out evenly along the width of the path. Crushed stone cleaning machines have been created, which are included in track systems consisting of machines operating at high operating speeds, carrying out ballast cutting and loading onto rolling stock, as well as cleaning crushed stone to its entire depth for any transverse profiles of the ballast prism. The contaminant is transported by the conveyor belt of a gravel cleaning machine and thrown out of the way. In 2017, Russia developed and operates on the Russian Railways network the currently most versatile universal track system, including the ShchOM-2000 rubble-cleaning machine, the SZ-88 weed removal unit, and the MR-100 distribution and sealing machine ^{[1] [2]} .

Self-propelled gravel cleaners produced for the world's railways have scraper or bucket cesspool devices. Vibrating screens are often used to clean gravel. Such macadam cleaning machines provide a greater cleaning depth, but have a lower productivity than macadam cleaning machines with a centrifugal ballast cleaning method. Plasser & Theurer also launches the high-performance RM 95-700 ballast cleaning machine through a double screen. This eight-axle articulated ballast cleaning machine with hydraulic drive and a new ballast reserve is characterized by high performance and compact design. RM 95-700 is used in various conditions and represents a new model that can be classified as intermediate between the machines of the RM 800 / RM 900 and RM 80 series. ^[3]

• SCH-600
• Bar machine

• Rubble-cleaning machine // Railway Transport: Encyclopedia / Ch. ed. N. S. Konarev . - M .: Big Russian Encyclopedia , 1994. - S. 502. - ISBN 5-85270-115-7 .