NCBJ has been cooperating with the Warsaw-based Railway Institute to comprehensively evaluate quality and safety of engine rails. Some nationwide unique competencies are among outcomes of that tight cooperation.

NCBJ-operated Material Research Lab (LBM) is an unique lab in the country. Jointly with Railway Institute (IK) they have been assessing quality of steel from the railway industry requirements point of view, including tests of resistance to brittle fracture and speed of development of fatigue cracks in engine rails.

We performed some fatigue tests, i.e. tests, in which samples of engineering materials are loaded with some cyclically varying loads -- explains Eng. Łukasz Kurpaska PhD, Head of NCBJ Material Research Lab – Test parameters were carefully selected to possibly faithfully represent real work conditions of the tested materials. Tests of strength/resistance of various constructional materials considered for use in nuclear industry are extremely meticulous, therefore we have developed some unique competencies in that respect. We are glad we can utilize these competencies also in other sectors of national economy.

It is a very time consuming procedure to test resistance of engine rails to brittle fracture and speed of development of fatigue cracks in such rails. Tests of a single batch of samples may take a few months. However, such tests are indispensable if rails are to be safely operated for many years.

Multi-year very fruitful cooperation with Railway Institute has helped to develop some nationwide unique competencies – points out Professor Jacek Jagielski, Director of the NCBJ Material Physics Department – LBM has just been granted new certificates of accreditation and currently is entitled to test conformity of tribological properties of samples with the ASTM US standards. One could hardly ask for a better validation of our high competencies, qualifications and know-how in the field of testing engineering/industrial materials.

NCBJ-operated LBM is the sole lab in the country granted so many certificates of accreditation, particularly those concerning the fracture mechanics tests. We are able to test conformity of samples with the ASTM E399–09, ISO 12108, BS 6835–1:1998 and/or PN-EN ISO 12737:2011 standards i.e. with all internationally and domestically recognized standards commonly used by labs all over the world.