Have you ever thought that the train that clangs and runs every day, with the unremarkable wooden sleeper under it, is actually a "veteran who has been through a hundred battles"?

You should know that the sleepers on the railway tracks cannot be used just by cutting down a tree. Especially pine wood, which has a natural tendency to attract insects, without undergoing special forces training, let alone carrying a train to crush it, it is estimated that it will be decayed into a sieve after being left in the wild for two months. The key to transforming pine wood sleepers from "crispy novices" to "tough guys" is what we are going to talk about today - oil injection technology.

Step 1: Peel off the pine wood and become a "clean boy" first

The pine wood that has just been transported back from the forest farm is covered in bark, knots, and moisture, like a rough man who has just finished a marathon, sticky and muddy. The first step at this point is not to soak in oil directly, but to take a shower and shave first.

The master worker will cut the pine wood into standard sized sleeper blanks, then stack them for natural drying, control the moisture, and the wood will become "tough" and less prone to mold and deformation.

The dried sleepers still need to undergo a "physical examination": are there any cracks? How many knots are there? Unqualified ones will be directly eliminated, after all, to carry dozens of tons of trains, one must have a strong physical foundation.

Step 2: Vacuum "grease extraction"+high-pressure "oil injection", hard core anti-corrosion online

The highlight is here - oil injection process. This step can be called the "Iron Man Armor Building Step" of the pillow:

The sleepers will be sent into a sealed large iron can, and once the can door is closed, it will be evacuated first.

After vacuuming, the next step is high-pressure oil injection. Under immense pressure, the anti-corrosion oil forcefully penetrates into the wood. The key point is that the oil immersion depth can often reach 13mm or more - what is the concept? It's about the width of your index finger nail cover. That is to say, more than 1 centimeter inward from the surface of the sleeper is covered with a "protective shell" formed by anti-corrosion oil.

After completing this step, the sleepers turned dark black from the inside out and felt oily to the touch. Don't be averse to greasiness, it's its' anti manufacturing 'capital.

Step 3: "Drain"+"sunbathe", the sleepers "graduate" and start working

Oil filled sleepers cannot be used directly and must be 'drained'. Just like shaking hands and water after washing, excess oil will be recycled, and the sleepers will be sent to a ventilated area for "sun exposure" (or low-temperature drying), allowing the internal oil to slowly solidify. This process will last for several days until the oil and wood are completely integrated.

Finally, the sleepers that have passed the inspection will be printed with specifications and models, and then packaged and sent to the railway line. From then on, they transformed from "wooden blanks" to "railway guards" and stayed on the tracks for decades or even decades.

Why do we have to inject oil? Unoiled sleepers cannot survive for more than 3 years

You may ask: Is it not possible to use wood directly? It really doesn't work.

Although pine wood is sturdy, it is naturally afraid of three things: insects, fungi, and moisture. Most of the environments along the railway are complex, with rain and humidity being common occurrences, as well as various insects and termites gnawing on the wood.

Anti corrosion oil is like putting a "bulletproof vest" on sleepers: the oil fills the wood cells, making it difficult for insects to bite (too greasy, unable to bite), fungi cannot reproduce in the oil, and the wood will not absorb water and expand in humid environments. Simply put, the oiling process is the use of a combination of physical and chemical methods to turn sleepers into "knife and gun resistant" tough guys.

At the end: Every sleeper is an 'unknown hero' on the railway

Do you know now? The inconspicuous sleepers under the railway tracks hide so many doorways behind them. From pine wood to anti-corrosion sleepers, the oiling process is like giving them a "lifetime insurance", allowing them to stick to their posts under wind, sun, and train crushing.