AWS D15.2 PDF

This document recommends standards for the joining, repair, maintenance, inspection of rail welds, and related rail components. For the purposes of this document, rails include railroad rails, crane rails, guard rails, electrical contact rails, girder rails, and retarder rails. Classification of rails is based on the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance of Way Association (AREMA) specifications governing the manufacture of rails.

Related rail components include rail crossings and turnouts which further include switch points, stock rails, switch point guards, spacer blocks, connecting rods, switch rods, plates, frogs, and frog components.

The use of track components reconditioned by welding is a decision of the rail owner outside the scope of this document. This document does not include road bed maintenance except where it affects the expected life of the repair. Safety precautions shall conform to Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), Title 49, Part 214, Railroad Workplace Safety. Safety and health issues and concerns are beyond the scope of this standard, and therefore are not fully addressed herein. Safety and health information is available from other sources, including, but not limited to, ANSI Z49.1, Safety in Welding, Cutting, and Allied Processes, and applicable federal and state regulations (see also Annex E, Safe Practices).

Welding processes include shielded metal arc welding (SMAW), gas metal arc welding (GMAW), flux cored arc welding (FCAW), flash welding (FW), thermite welding (TW), and oxyfuel gas welding (OFW). See Annex A and Volume 2, Eighth Edition, Welding Handbook for details.

This standard makes use of the U.S. Customary Units. Approximate mathematical equivalents in the International System of Units (SI) are provided for comparison in parentheses ( ) or in appropriate columns in tables and figures.