A guide rail is a device or mechanism to direct products, vehicles or other objects through a channel, conveyor, roadway or rail system.
Several types of guide rails exist and may be associated with:
* Factory or production line conveyors
* Power tools, such as table saws
* Elevator or lift shafts
* Roadways and bridges (in this context sometimes called
guardrails)
* A central rail that guides the
rubber tired train of a
rubber tired metro
Factory guide rail
Most factories use guide rails convey products and component parts along an
assembly line
An assembly line, often called ''progressive assembly'', is a manufacturing process where the unfinished product moves in a direct line from workstation to workstation, with parts added in sequence until the final product is completed. By mechan ...
. This conveyor system propels products of various sizes, shapes, and dimensions through the factory over the course of their assembly.
Power tool guide rail
Accessory to a power tool, such as a straight, swivel or angle jig for a circular saw, and can also be referred to as a fence. The guide rail system provides an acute method of cutting material.
Elevator shaft guide rail
Guide rails are part of the inner workings of most elevator and lift shafts, functioning as the vertical, internal track. The guide rails are fixed to two sides of the shaft; one guides the elevator car and the other for the counterweight. In tandem, these rails operate both as stabilization within the shaft during routine use and as a safety system in case of emergency stops.
Roadway guide rail
A guide rail is a system designed to guide vehicles back to the roadway and away from potentially hazardous situations. There is no legal distinction between a guide rail and a
guard rail
Guard rails, guardrails, railings or protective guarding, in general, are a boundary feature and may be a means to prevent or deter access to dangerous or off-limits areas while allowing light and visibility in a greater way than a fence. Commo ...
. According to the US
Federal Highway Administration
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) is a division of the United States Department of Transportation that specializes in highway transportation. The agency's major activities are grouped into two programs, the Federal-aid Highway Program a ...
, the terms guardrail and guiderail are synonymous.
Several types of roadway guide rail exist; all are engineered to guide vehicular traffic on roads or bridges. Such systems include W-beam, box beam, cable, and concrete barrier. Each system is intended to guide vehicles back onto the road as opposed to guard them from going off the road into potential danger.
Railway guide rail
On the
Sapporo Municipal Subway
The is a mostly-underground rubber-tyred rapid transit system in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. Operated by the Sapporo City Transportation Bureau, it is the only subway system on the island of Hokkaido.
Lines
The system consists of three lines: ...
a central rail guides the train. The
Lille Metro
The Lille Metro () is a driverless light metro system located in Lille, France. It commenced operations on 25 April 1983 and was the first system to implement the Véhicule Automatique Léger (VAL, ) technology. While sometimes cited as the ...
,
Translohr
Translohr is the name of a rubber-tyred tramway technology, originally developed by Lohr Industrie of France and now run by a consortium of Alstom Transport and Fonds stratégique d'investissement (FSI) as ''newTL,'' which took over from ...
and
Bombardier Guided Light Transit
Guided Light Transit (GLT, ) was the name of guided bus technology and associated infrastructure manufactured by Bombardier Transportation (now Alstom). Two GLT prototypes were designed and tested from 1987 onwards by BN in the region of Roche ...
are also guided by a central guide rail.
Image:Sapporo subway rollers.jpg, Sapporo Subway guide rail and flat steel roll way
__NOTOC__
A roll way or running pad is the pad placed on a concrete slab or on the ties on the outside of the conventional track along both running rails of a rubber-tyred metro or along the unconventional track of a tram. The rubber-tyred whe ...
s
File:Guide rail used in the Translohr guidance system for rubber-tyred trams.jpg, Section of the Translohr
Translohr is the name of a rubber-tyred tramway technology, originally developed by Lohr Industrie of France and now run by a consortium of Alstom Transport and Fonds stratégique d'investissement (FSI) as ''newTL,'' which took over from ...
guidance rail (during the Clermont-Ferrand
Clermont-Ferrand (, , ; or simply ; ) is a city and Communes of France, commune of France, in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regions of France, region, with a population of 147,284 (2020). Its metropolitan area () had 504,157 inhabitants at the 2018 ...
installation in 2006)
File:Ligne 1 du métro de Lille Métropole - Garage-atelier des Quatre Cantons (19).JPG, VAL tracks on the Lille Metro
The Lille Metro () is a driverless light metro system located in Lille, France. It commenced operations on 25 April 1983 and was the first system to implement the Véhicule Automatique Léger (VAL, ) technology. While sometimes cited as the ...
showing the center guide rail and rollways.
File:BTC 4005.jpg, Busan Subway Line 4
See also
*
Automated guideway transit
An automated guideway transit (AGT) or automated fixed-guideway transit or automatic guideway transit system is a type of fixed guideway transit infrastructure with a riding or suspension track that supports and physically guides one or more dri ...
*
Baluster
A baluster () is an upright support, often a vertical moulded shaft, square, or lathe-turned form found in stairways, parapets, and other architectural features. In furniture construction it is known as a spindle. Common materials used in its ...
*
Concrete step barrier
A concrete step barrier is a safety barrier used on the central reservation of motorways and dual carriageways as an alternative to the standard steel crash barrier.
United Kingdom
With effect from January 2005 and based primarily on safety ...
*
Crash barrier
Traffic barriers (known in North America as guardrails or guard rails, in Britain as crash barriers, and in auto racing as Armco barriers AK Steel (formerly Armco) genericized trademark) keep vehicles within their roadway and prevent them from co ...
*
Flangeways
*
Guard rail
Guard rails, guardrails, railings or protective guarding, in general, are a boundary feature and may be a means to prevent or deter access to dangerous or off-limits areas while allowing light and visibility in a greater way than a fence. Commo ...
*
Guide bar
Guide bars, or guiding bars are rubber-tyred metro systems that incorporate track. They have angle irons as outside of the two roll ways.
The Busan Subway Line 4 lacks a rail track, and has I-beams installed as guide bars.
The flanges ...
*
Handrail
A handrail is a rail that is designed to be grasped by the hand so as to provide safety or support. In Great Britain, Britain, handrails are referred to as banisters. Handrails are commonly used while ascending or descending stairways and escala ...
*
Jersey barrier
A Jersey barrier, Jersey wall, or Jersey bump is a modular concrete or plastic barrier employed to separate lanes of traffic. It is designed to minimize vehicle damage in cases of incidental contact while still preventing vehicle crossovers resu ...
*
Rubber-tyred metro
A rubber-tyred metro or rubber-tired metro is a form of rapid transit system that uses a mix of road transport, road and rail transport, rail technology. The vehicles have wheels with rubber tires that run on a roll way inside guide bars for tr ...
s
*
Rubber-tyred tram
A rubber-tyred tram (also known as tramway on tyres, ) is a development of the guided bus in which a vehicle is guided by a fixed rail in the road surface and draws current from overhead electric wires (either via pantograph or trolley poles) ...
s
References
{{reflist, 2
Power tools
Safety equipment
Road transport
Rail transport