Using magnets to pick up grinding swarf from railroad track.
Using magnets to pick up grinding swarf from railroad track.
(OP)
My company designs and builds machines that use a grinding process to re-profile railroad rail heads. They travel down the track at slow speeds and several grinding stones set a different angles grind the rail heads to a desired profile. One of the byproducts of the grinding process is obviously swarf. We have no problems picking up the air borne particles but the heavier particles get deposited on the tracks. Our cusomers are requesting our machines to do a better job of cleaning up after themselves so we are looking into different ways of picking up those ferrous particles from the tracks. One idea was to use magnetism to pick up the particles but none of our engineering staff are experienced in magnetics so I am posting the issue here. Is it feasible to try to pick up grinding swarf off off a railroad track? To stay safe the magnets would need to be positioned approximately 12 inches away from the material we would like to collect. Is this possible? Can anyone point us to any companies that may be able to assit us?





RE: Using magnets to pick up grinding swarf from railroad track.
What's the downside of just adding high pressure air blowers around the rail to loft the swarf to be picked up whatever you're using to pick up airborne particles? If not air, then mechanical agitation, i.e., brushes. I'd put anything magnetic last, since you then need to figure out how to remove the swarf from the magnets, which probably requires some sort of mechanism and additional moving parts.
TTFN

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RE: Using magnets to pick up grinding swarf from railroad track.
We were kicking around the idea of a rectangular plate magnet inside a non-magnetic housing. The housing would keep the particles from contaminating the magnet. Once the magnet is removed from the hosuing, the particles fall off into some sort of container. I know I have seen rod magnets inside stainless steel tubes arrainged in grids for removing metal from various types of bulk materials.
RE: Using magnets to pick up grinding swarf from railroad track.
Use shrouds and a blower to send all of the debris into your dust collection system. Then brush the rail heads with tampico brushes to make sure that no residue is left.
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Plymouth Tube
RE: Using magnets to pick up grinding swarf from railroad track.
The best permanent magnets will pick up iron filings from about an inch above. So, you'd need a minimum of 144 times the face field to get anywhere close to an equivalent condition. AND, that's without a humongous chunk of steel right in the middle of everything, which is going to warp the field so badly that you'll pick up pretty much nothing.
TTFN

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RE: Using magnets to pick up grinding swarf from railroad track.
RE: Using magnets to pick up grinding swarf from railroad track.
A big +1!
Adriaan.
I am a Mechatronics Engineer from South Africa.
www.martin-electronics.co.za
RE: Using magnets to pick up grinding swarf from railroad track.
contact any airvey system house there are standard method for accomplishing your task