Buy Railway Spikes from Professional Rail Fastener Supplier

It must be accepted each part of rail fasteners plays an important role in the safety of railway, rail spike is no exception. Rail spikes are large nails with offset heads that are used to fix rails and base plates to railroad ties in the track. The quality of rail spikes relates to the safety of rail transportation, so that high quality rail spike production is necessary. For most consumers, where to buy railway spikes may be the first question before buying. As a professional supplier, AGICO is committed to produce high quality railway spikes and other rail fasteners for railway construction.

Broad prospect of rail industry and rail fasteners

As part of its rapid urbanization efforts, China has spent billions of dollars over the last decade on building huge subway systems and a national high-speed rail network. In recent years, China has already been exporting its high speed rail products to countries from Malaysia to Russia. Beijing clearly wants to grow its competitiveness in this area, including through infrastructure projects in the “One Belt, One Road” initiative. There is on doubt that more and more railway projects would be constructed, and high quality rail fasteners are in great demand in the years to come.

What’s more, high-speed rail is the face of modern rail in China and the latest addition to a burgeoning high-speed network that will be the biggest in the world within five years, according to the government's blueprint. Officials drafted a plan to move much of the nation’s passenger traffic onto high-speed routes by 2020, freeing existing tracks for more freight. The construction of high-speed rail blends the highest technology from many areas, so that the quality of rail fasteners is particular important to ensure the safety of rail transportation.

Two Main Types of Rail Spikes - Dog Spike & Screw Spike

Generally speaking, there are two types of rail spikes: dog spike and screw spike. These two types of rail spikes are different both in shape and function.

Dog Spike: Dog spike is used to fasten T-shaped railroad track to wooden ties that have an L-shaped head and a square shank. The bottom of the head is sloped to match the slope of the flange of a rail and the tip is wedge-shaped, not pointed. The wedge is driven into the tie across the grain, which means the wedge is parallel to the track. The square cross section gives a railroad dog spike much higher holding strength than a fastener having the same amount of metal but a circular cross section has; roughly speaking, about 50% more. Dog spike with the wedge driven across the grain will have about twice as much holding power as one driven with the grain. Early experiments showed that pulling out a 9/16” × 9/16” spike driven 4¼ inches into dry cedar required on average a force of 857 pounds. In seasoned oak, another experimenter needed 4281 pounds.
Screw Spike: A screw spike, rail screw (or lag bolt) is a large (~6 in or 152 mm length, slightly under 1 in or 25 mm) metal screw used to fix a tie plate or fasten rail. Screw spikes are fixed into a hole bored in the sleeper. The screw spike has a higher cost to manufacture than the rail spike but has the advantage of greater fixing power; approximately twice that of a rail spike and can be used in combination with spring washers. The screw spike was first applied in 1860 in France (French tire-fond), then became common in continental Europe. It can be said a dog screw is a trade name variant of the screw spike.

AGICO - Professional Supplier of Railway Spikes

AGICO is a leading manufacturer of rail spikes and other rail fasteners. We provide a complete line of products, including rail fastening system, rail anchor, rail joint, rail clip, dog spike, rail screw spike, anchor bolt, rail clamp plate, and fishplate bolt for connecting rail tracks. We also make rail fastenings for crane rail and elevator guide rail, along with other related products. We manufacture according to GB/TB (Chinese national standards and railway standards), AREA, UIC, BS, DIN, ASTM, and AS standards.

Current standards for rail spike steel define two grades: 1 (soft) and 2 (high carbon).  The stronger high carbon spikes must be marked “HC”. Our products are mainly made through hot forging. The threads of rail screw spikes are made by hot rolling with special threading machines. We produce metric threads, BS, BSW, TR thread, or round threads. Our high strength bolts come in different specifications of Class 4.8, 4.6, 5.6, 5.8, 6.8, 8.8, 10.9, and 12.9. A variety of non-standard fastening is also available. We can customize our products using customer drawings or samples as well.