RailwayCare Co-Developed JB/T 11431-2020: The Industry Standard Behind Its Rail Grinding Wheels

RailwayCare has co-developed JB/T 11431-2020, China's machinery industry standard for rail grinding wheels. Issued under the title "Bonded abrasive products - Grinding wheel for rail", the standard defines how resin-bonded rail grinding wheels must be designed, made and tested - and it is a pillar of the quality assurance behind every Molaton wheel the company ships.

What JB/T 11431-2020 is

JB/T 11431-2020, implemented on 1 January 2021, replaces the 2013 first edition of the same standard. It is administered by the China Machinery Industry Federation and governed by the National Technical Committee for Abrasives (SAC/TC139). RailwayCare's manufacturing entity in Wuhan is among the five drafting organizations, alongside the Zhengzhou Research Institute for Abrasives & Grinding and other industry members.

What the standard covers

The standard applies to resin-bonded rail grinding wheels and specifies, in a single document, everything needed to make them consistently and safely:

• Shape codes, basic dimensions and marking - the dimensioned wheel series for rail grinding machines, including mounting dimensions.
• Technical requirements - abrasive type and grit size, dimensional tolerances, geometric tolerances, appearance, static balance, maximum operating speed and the mounting part of the wheel body.
• Test methods - how each requirement is verified, including unbalance measurement and rotation (burst) testing.
• Inspection rules, marking, packaging and storage - the acceptance and delivery conditions for production lots.

Because it is a compulsory reference for resin-bonded rail grinding wheels in China, the standard sets the baseline for dimensional accuracy (outer diameter, thickness, parallelism, concentricity), for balance quality and for rotation safety - the properties that decide whether a wheel runs smoothly and safely at 50 m/s on a grinding train.

Why drafting the standard matters for quality

Being a drafting organization means RailwayCare works from the inside of the specification, not just against it. The company's quality system has been built around the same requirements since 2004, when it became China's first manufacturer dedicated to rail grinding wheels. Its in-house laboratory - set up with Wuhan University of Technology - is equipped for the checks the standard demands, and independent verification by the National Quality Supervision and Inspection Center for Abrasives (Zhengzhou, 2024) confirmed its G1b wheel meets JB/T 11431-2020 requirements, including a rotation test in which the wheel held at 4,775 r/min for 30 seconds without failure.

The wheels built to this standard

Every current Molaton grinding wheel is designed and released against this baseline. Representative products include:

• Rail Grinder Wheel MRC-L260090 for Harsco PGM-48/96 - 260×90×154 mm grinding train wheel
• Rail Grinder Wheel MRC-L260083 for Loram C44/MFS - heavy-duty grinding train wheel
• Rail Grinder Wheel MRC-L250075 for Speno grinding vehicles - precision profiling wheel
• Rail Grinder Wheel MRC-S150075 for Geismar/Robel 150 model - hand-operated machine wheel

For how these wheels are applied to corrugation, fatigue and profile defects on site, see the Rail Grinding Solution page; for company background and the full range, see About Us and Products.

About RailwayCare. RailwayCare (Wuhan Huatie Ruijie Rail Transit Technology Co., Ltd.) has manufactured rail grinding wheels for grinding trains and hand-operated machines since 2004 and was the first Chinese manufacturer in this field. Molaton is the company's product brand for this wheel range.

• CEO Contact Person: Simon Wang
• Email: Simon.Wang@railwaycare.com
• Tel / WhatsApp: +86 15072332788
• Address: Intersection of Yuanchang Street and Huangjiahu Avenue, Jiangxia District, Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China

For rail grinding wheel inquiries, technical support or cooperation, visit Contact Us or send an inquiry via Send Inquiry. Company background is available on the About Us page.

JB/T 11431-2020 information in this article follows the published standard record (issued 16 April 2020, implemented 1 January 2021, replacing JB/T 11431-2013). Independent test data is from RailwayCare's 2024 verification at the National Quality Supervision and Inspection Center for Abrasives. Molaton is RailwayCare's product brand; RailwayCare is the international trade name of Wuhan Huatie Ruijie Rail Transit Technology Co., Ltd.