Under the rail, the key component supporting the weight of the train is the sleeper. These sleepers are exposed to the sun and rain, soil moisture, fungi and moths for a long time, and bear great pressure. If untreated pine wood (plain sleeper) is used, although it is easy to process and low cost, the internal structure of the wood is loose and easy to rot. Generally, plain sleepers will be seriously damaged after 5 to 10 years of use in the open air and need to be replaced frequently, which will not only increase the cost but also affect the railway safety.

How to make sleepers more durable? The key is a core process - oil immersion. This process is the "source of anticorrosion" that anticorrosive sleepers can be used for a long time.

The cut and dried pine sleepers are sent into large pressure vessels. The container is filled with specific anti-corrosion oil. Under the control of temperature and pressure, the oiling agent is forced into the wood. Pressure allows the oil to penetrate deeper into the deeper structure of the pine. When the pressure is released, the wood structure retracts and effectively retains the oil in the deep interior of the wood.

This kind of deep oil immersion treatment is the core advantage of anti-corrosion sleepers. It is not to brush a layer of protective paint on the surface of the wood, but to let the anti-corrosive oil thoroughly enter the interior of the wood and evenly distribute.

Oiling agents work inside the wood:

Isolate moisture: the oil agent fills the pores of the wood, greatly reducing the absorption and retention of moisture.

Inhibition of fungi: the deep layer of wood is full of oil, which destroys the living environment of fungi leading to decay.

Repel insects: the smell and characteristics of the oil agent can repel and poison wood borers.

This is equivalent to building a comprehensive and lasting protection system for the interior of wood, so that it has the ability to resist biological invasion.

The performance of the oil impregnated anticorrosive sleeper is far better than that of the plain sleeper:

Long service life: This is the most significant advantage. Plain sleepers usually need to be replaced within five to ten years, while the service life of oil impregnated anti-corrosion sleepers can reach more than ten years or even decades, which is several times that of plain sleepers. This greatly reduces the replacement frequency and material consumption.

Low maintenance cost: long service life directly leads to a significant reduction in maintenance cost. The workload of line overhaul and routine sleeper replacement is greatly reduced.

Stable bearing capacity: the anti-corrosion treatment effectively prevents the decay of the wood and the damage of the internal structure, so that the sleeper can maintain good strength and stability throughout the life cycle, and provide more reliable and sustainable support for the track.

High safety: it avoids the risk of track geometric deformation or even traffic accidents caused by the sudden decay and fracture of sleepers, and improves the safety of railway operation.

Better resource utilization: Although the oil immersion treatment increases the initial cost, it is several times longer than the service life of plain sleepers, making the utilization efficiency of wood resources higher and more sustainable in the long run.

In contrast, although the initial investment of plain sleepers is low, the comprehensive cost of plain sleepers is much higher than that of anti-corrosion sleepers due to frequent replacement, human and material resources consumption and potential threat to driving safety caused by their short service life.

The oil impregnation process endows the wood with the ability to resist decay fundamentally by injecting the anti-corrosive oil into the "blood" of the pine sleeper deeply and evenly. It is the core technical guarantee for the durability of anti-corrosion sleepers, and is truly the "source of anti-corrosion". The selection of anti-corrosion sleepers after scientific oil immersion treatment means that they have longer line life, lower maintenance cost, higher operation safety and better resource utilization efficiency, which has laid a solid foundation for the safe, stable and efficient operation of the railway.