Porta Plant Welding

Rail transportation and handling logistics are some of the most critical issues our customers face in planning rail installation projects.  The availability of rail trains, or the suitability of delivering long (up to 1,600 feet) welded "strings" of rail to a job site may be in doubt.  In certain circumstances, it has made a great deal of economic sense to set up a portable welding plant, or as we term them - "Porta Plants".

A porta plant consists of setting up a complete welding line similar in function to one of our fixed location welding plants, including: an incoming rail stockpile, rail feed table, rail cutting station, weld station, rough grind/base grind station, finish grind station, and press/inspection station.  We incorporate a hydraulic pusher and often lead-out stands to efficiently insert the finished strings into the pockets of a rail train.

Operationally, the key difference between the Porta Plant and a fixed plant is that the heart of a Porta Plant is a 72 or 130 ton mobile welding head, suspended in an A-frame or a small temporary building, rather than a Holland K1000 or Schlatter fixed plant welder installed on a concrete foundation.  Porta Plants can be perhaps 60% as productive as a fixed plant, but can be the most cost effective solution to a particular customer's logistical needs.