Custom Painted Crane Rail Solution for Sri Lanka Port Authority
Project Overview
In August 2024, Glory Crane delivered 28 pieces of 12-meter DIN 536 A65 painted crane rails and 8 pieces of 1.5-meter short rails/trolley rails to the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) for its port machinery track project. The cargo was shipped by sea to the Port of Colombo (port of discharge). For this project, an Sa2.5 sandblasting process was performed, followed by a 260-micrometer coating system consisting of zinc-rich epoxy and polyurethane in RAL 1007, and precise masking of the rail crown and weldable areas was carried out.
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| End Customer: | Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) |
| Main Product: | A65 Rail (28 pieces of 12-meter-long rails, 8 pieces of 1.5-meter-short rails) |
| Application: | Rail tracks for gantry cranes and port portal cranes |
| Surface Treatment: | Sa 2.5 grade sandblasting for rust removal |
| Coating System: | 2 coats of two-component zinc-rich epoxy primer + 1 coat of polyurethane topcoat |
| Topcoat Color: | RAL 1007 yellow crane rail |
| Total Dry Film Thickness: | total coating thickness 260 micron crane rail (≥260μm) |
Client & Application Background
The port terminal infrastructure, managed directly by the Sri Lanka Ports Authority, is located in a highly corrosive marine environment characterized by severe salt fog and high humidity, classified as ISO 12944 C5-M. To ensure the structural reliability and safety of its harbor gantry crane rails during long-term, high-intensity operation, the Port Authority has set stringent technical specifications for the procured A65 Rail Sri Lanka project, requiring the product to possess exceptional weather resistance, UV resistance, and resistance to heavy mechanical wear.
As a major national-level port infrastructure project, the end customer has established extremely high standards for the manufacturing and corrosion protection of this batch of A65 crane rails for the Sri Lankan port, urgently requiring multi-layer heavy-duty anti-corrosion coatings and high-precision machined end faces that are perfectly suited for A65 rails used in port machinery.
What Is a Short Rail / Trolley Rail?
In ship-to-shore (STS) cranes and gantry cranes, short rails are installed at the articulation point between the boom and the main girder to maintain continuous wheel support during boom pitch movements and to absorb the impact forces generated when the trolley transitions between sections. The L-Cut Crane Rail Section / Mitred Rail Joint design enables precise mechanical interlocking, and some structures also support flash butt welding to form a continuous rail.
Glory Crane short rails are manufactured from U71Mn high-manganese steel, with critical sections made of 42CrMo alloy steel (yield strength > 930 MPa). The rail heads are flame-hardened to 45–48 HRC, making them suitable for harbor gantry crane rail and quayside crane rail applications.
Advanced Technical Specifications & Coating System
To fully comply with the Sri Lanka Ports Authority’s most stringent specifications for anti-corrosion coatings on marine port crane rails, Glory Crane strictly adheres to the following standardized heavy-duty anti-corrosion process:
Surface pretreatment: The entire rail is treated using a high-pressure shot blasting/sandblasting process to strictly meet the SA2.5 sand-blasted crane rail standard, providing excellent surface roughness for primer adhesion.
Multi-layer Coating System:
Base Coat Protection: Two coats of two-component zinc-rich epoxy primer (100 micrometers per coat, for a total dry film thickness of 200 μm), providing robust cathodic protection and a rust-preventive barrier.
Topcoat Protection: One coat of RAL 1007 yellow crane rail polyurethane topcoat (60 microns dry film thickness) is applied, providing the product with excellent visual warning properties and UV resistance and weatherability.
Precise Film Thickness Control: The final product fully meets the 260-micron total coating thickness standard for crane rails, ensuring that this batch of 260-micron-coated crane rails will have an exceptionally long service life of over 15 years in marine environments with high salt fog exposure.
Why Crane Rail Top Surface Is Not Painted — A-Line Masking
The top surface of the rail head is the functional working surface that comes into direct contact with the wheels of a locomotive. Any coating on this surface will be immediately damaged under wheel pressure, contaminating the wheel-rail interface and affecting friction performance, electrical conductivity, and operational safety.
Customers select Line A as the boundary for coating exemption—Rail Top & Weldable Area Masking. As shown in Figure 1, Line A marks the top of the rail head (the wheel running surface), and the area above Line A is left as bare metal.
Engineering Rationale: If the tread is painted, the crane’s main wheels are prone to slipping during operation; furthermore, when performing flash butt welding or gas pressure welding on-site, the high-temperature ablation of the organic paint film can contaminate the molten pool, leading to serious defects such as porosity and slag inclusions.
Implementation Plan: Glory Crane has established an extremely rigorous “Rail Top & Weldable Area Masking” process. Prior to factory spraying, the rail head section above Line A (see cross-sectional diagram) and the end welding zones are fully masked using industrial-grade high-adhesion protective film, followed by 360-degree full-rail spraying.
L-Cut Short Rail Section — Coating Clarification
Initially, the customer requested that neither end of the short rail be painted, out of concern that the cross-sections were part of the welded area. Glory Crane provided a technical clarification based on Figure 2: The end faces of the L-Cut Crane Rail Section / Mitered Rail Joint are non-welded mating surfaces and do not fall under the “welded area” as defined in the painting specifications.
Therefore, the L-cut cross-section can and should be painted to achieve maximum corrosion protection. This clarification corrected the customer’s overly conservative interpretation and ensured that the 1.5-meter short crane rail for the joint section received 360-degree full-enveloping protection—which is precisely the key advantage of selecting an experienced Sa2.5 anti-corrosion painted crane rail supplier.
Core Strengths: Glory Crane’s Expertise in Short Rail & Trolley Rail Manufacturing
The short rail (also known as a trolley rail) is a critical precision component in port crane systems—a transition section located at the crane boom’s articulation point that connects the boom rail to the main girder rail. Glory Crane has developed the manufacturing of 1.5-meter short rail joint sections into one of its core business lines and possesses specialized production capabilities for L-shaped notched rail sections and beveled rail joints.
This Sri Lanka Port Authority rail solution includes eight custom-made 1.5-meter short crane rails for joint sections, designed to connect at expansion joints. Short rails and trolley rails are indispensable core components in crane track expansion joints, reversing tracks, and trolley running mechanisms. The Glory Crane factory is equipped with heavy-duty CNC rail milling machines, high-precision saw-and-drill combined production lines, and a 360-degree automated spray booth specifically designed for the production of complex, irregularly shaped short rails.
As a global supplier of anti-corrosion painted crane rails meeting the highest international standards (Sa 2.5 grade), Glory Crane is able to provide customers worldwide with a truly one-stop, complete crane rail solution for port projects, covering the entire production process from rail rolling and precision cutting to L-shaped notching and anti-corrosion masking and painting.
Logistics & Delivery
The 28 pieces of 12-meter A65 long rails and 8 pieces of 1.5-meter custom short rails included in this project were all successfully rolled, precision-machined, coated with anti-corrosion paint, and subjected to rigorous quality inspections at the Glory Crane factory. The finished products were packaged using custom corner protectors, wooden bumpers, and high-strength lifting slings to prevent damage to the paint finish during ocean transport. The shipment was successfully dispatched from the Port of Tianjin, China, in August 2024, arrived at its destination, the Port of Colombo, and was delivered to the end customer, the Sri Lanka Ports Authority, fulfilling the contract perfectly. This once again demonstrated Glory Crane’s commitment to quality as a global supplier of high-standard A65 rails for port projects.
Contact Us
If you are looking for a reliable supplier of DIN 536 A65 crane rails for port projects, or if you need customized, painted crane rail solutions designed for seaport environments, Glory Crane can provide you with professional, full-cycle services. Contact us today for a free quote and technical proposal.