Supply of Aluminothermic Welding Materials and Associated Equipment

Location

Description

Network Rail has awarded a contract via Direct Award under the Procurement Act 2023 to Thermit Welding (GB) Ltd for the Supply of Aluminothermic Welding Materials and Associated Equipment.

Award Detail

CPV Codes

• None found

Legal Justification

With respect to joining rails on site, Aluminothermic Welding is the only welding process Network Rail can utilise given the number of welds installed on an annual basis (Circa 30,000 - 40,000). Other welding processes are either not suitable (enclosed arc welding) or unable to support the number of sites and welds required per year i.e. flash butt welding as only 1 machine is available in the UK to support this process. Network Rail has a number of Aluminothermic Welders in the business which are trained on the Supplier's Aluminothermic Welding Process. In order to continue using this process, Network Rail has to use the Supplier's Aluminothermic Welding Materials and associated equipment as they are specific to their processes and alternatives would be incompatible with the process. Network Rail is unable to move to another Aluminothermic Welding process as this would require retraining of all welding staff which would cause disproportionate technical difficulties in operation and maintenance. In addition to this, there are no other Suppliers in the market which have an Aluminothermic Welding process approved to the requirements of NR/L2/TRK/0032 and EN14730-1.

Other Information

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