Vale invests in innovation and technology to ensure high standards of safety and productivity in its logistics operations. To this end, we are developing various maintenance initiatives on the Vitória-Minas Railroad (EFVM), one of the most modern and productive railroads in Brazil.
Inspection using ultrasound equipment (the Phased Array method) is making train car maintenance more efficient. The objective of the procedure is to detect possible cracks in wagon-coupling equipment without the need to take apart the shock absorption and traction system.
This technology is in use at the train car workshop in Tubarão, in the state of Espírito Santo, and may be rolled out to all 12,000 wagons that make up the EFVM’s ore transport fleet. The EFVM is the only Brazilian railroad to use the Phased Array method for this kind of maintenance.
In another initiative, designed to prevent corrosion, the EFVM’s train car workshop is replacing regular steel plates – used as protective lining inside iron ore wagons – with semi-stainless steel plates. The new material is three times as resistant. The plan is to replace the plates in 500 train cars by the end of the year.