The Only Heavy-Duty Rail Cutter on the Market
Published: 6/5, 2020
The the iRC35 rail cutter developed by Italmek, is designed for professional use heavy duty use. It is built to last and tough enough to master the breaking of large rails on a daily basis. “Six years ago, we decided to put our 60 years of steel shear design and manufacturing at use for the need of our best customers,” explains says Italmek managing director Marco Bodei. “The time had come to finally develop our first rail cutter. Our goal was to build it to last longer than any other rail cutter and build it to perform like no other product on the market.”
To differentiate the iRC35 from competing models, “we put into practice a different concept that leads to ‘effective strength’ which makes our cutter far superior to the other products available in the market,” Marco adds. “Its toughness is due to the combination of a structure wholly made out of Hardox and Strenx.”
All steel types used to make the rail cutter are applied in impressive thicknesses, together with some technical solutions that allow the significant reduction of any shock the attachment undergoes during the rail cutting/breaking process. Upon breaking, rail fragments simply fall onto the ground, not randomly strewn in all directions. At the same time the typical “deafening” noise of a metallic explosion is replaced by a dull noise that can be heard only from close range.
“It becomes immediately evident that this new cutter has a great and long working life ahead of it,” Marco says. “The great working speed is accompanied by a high effectiveness in breaking, even when dealing with larger rails. Each time you close its mouth, it makes a cut, but does not transmit any noise or vibration in the cabin.”
The latter feature is very important for those who care about the well-being of their operators, but also care about the proper functioning of their excavator, which was another important design feature from the outset. This was achieved thanks to a combination of factors, not least the development of a special regenerative valve with a much higher multiplication factor than standard being equipped with devices that absorb hydraulic kickbacks.
Italmek reports that the iRC35 has been very successfully received by its initial users. There are now several iRC35 rail cutters that have been working for at least three years of cumulative operating time with no reports of structural issues; the only downtime has been for scheduled maintenance. On average, the iRC35 machines have been cutting 60E, 136RE, R65, and AS68 rails into 5-ft (1.5) pieces, working nine to ten hours each day, five days per week. That means the iRC35 can cut from 2,300t to 2,600t in a month. The Italmek iRC35 rail cutter can cut railway train rails of all dimensions, and weighs approximately 3.4t without an adapter plate.