For railway sleepers, everyone should have an impression that they are usually used for laying railways, carrying rails and trains, and are a very important basic building material for railways. However, what you may not know is that some mining areas also require the use of sleepers, such as establishing tracks and installing mining cars in the mining area for the transportation of mineral resources. In the field of mining, the use of mining sleepers is similar to that of sleepers on railways. It is a common auxiliary facility used to support and protect tracks for the transportation of machinery and ore. As for the material of sleepers, cement and wood have always been controversial, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. Today, Qingdao Tiehan will discuss with you whether cement based mining sleepers are better or wooden anti-corrosion sleepers are better.
Analyzing which material is more suitable requires multiple aspects. First, let's talk about anti-corrosion. From the perspective of anti-corrosion, cement sleepers are undoubtedly superior to wooden sleepers. The raw material for wooden sleepers is wood, and there is always a possibility of corrosion. However, wooden sleepers used in mining are treated with anti-corrosion measures. Wooden sleepers treated with high-temperature and high-pressure oil immersion anti-corrosion measures have transformed into anti-corrosion sleepers, which also have water resistance and anti-corrosion properties. Properly treated mining anti-corrosion sleepers are less susceptible to moisture, deformation, or fungal erosion, which can better extend their service life. That is to say, in terms of anti-corrosion, cement sleepers have certain advantages, but relatively speaking, this advantage is not significant.
In terms of weight, anti-corrosion sleepers made from wood are noticeably lighter, making installation and replacement more convenient and efficient, reducing labor and material costs. On the contrary, cement sleepers are much heavier, requiring more manpower, material resources, and time for transportation, installation, maintenance, and replacement. Therefore, in many mining scenarios, wooden anti-corrosion sleepers are preferred as track supports.
The mining environment in the mining area is relatively harsh, and the mining cars and mineral resources carried by the tracks are also very heavy. At the same time, there is high humidity, large temperature changes, and frequent mechanical vibration, so the requirements for the toughness of sleepers are also high. Cement sleepers have relatively high hardness and lower toughness. Compared to wooden anti-corrosion sleepers, cement sleepers are more susceptible to environmental influences and cracking. Wooden anti-corrosion sleepers have higher toughness and can absorb more impact force from the track.
Overall, both cement sleepers and wooden sleepers have their unique uses and values in mining. Choosing the appropriate sleeper material can reduce facility maintenance costs, improve facility operation stability, and better protect mining equipment and personnel safety. I hope that in the future development of mining, we can choose sleeper materials more scientifically and reasonably, providing stronger guarantees for the efficient operation of mining facilities.
