3 ms·

So freezing the surface of the rail so the detritus freezes and disintegrates should do alright, but I wonder how the line or section of line could get taken ou

So freezing the surface of the rail so the detritus freezes and disintegrates should do alright, but I wonder how the line or section of line could get taken out of action when the line is already below freezing. Wouldn't it become a layer of ice then, or is that when we get the laser out to heat the rails?

dihydro 4y ago
It's more like sand blasting, but with dry ice instead of sand. This has been used for paint prep in industry and automotive for some time now. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry-ice_blasting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dry-ice_blasting
sandworm101 4y ago
This isn't just freezing. Dry ice is far colder than wet ice. Whether the ambient temperature is above/below 0c won't make that much difference. The lasers were never meant to heat the rails. Heating a shiny metal is very difficult. The leaf-cleaning laser system works specifically because it doesn't heat the metal. It bounces off the metal surface, heating only the non-shiny gunk on the rail.