Vertical Tamper

To produce a stable track bed in less than 2 minutes per sleeper.

Unresolved track bed problems will rapidly and significantly increase the costs of infrastructure and profile maintenance:

• wear of wheelset and chassis
• wear of track and track bed
• slow speed sections (delays, uncomfortable travelling)

The track bed needs to be levelled (tamped) when the track bed fault exceeds the specified difference from the set-point position. During the tamping process the track is lifted, this produces a cavity. Compacting the ballast at specific points is the standard method of levelling out elevations and removing cavities under the sleeper: tamping to compact the ballast stabilises the track and prevents excessive wear of all track components and track-bound vehicles.

• Mending of local track level faults
• In every state of the track bed
• From conurbations to free rural lines
• In every climate and topography
• From small local work to major maintenance operations
• ROTAMP Light is ideal for welding teams
• ROTAMP with electrical drive/battery in tunnels

1. The eccentric shaft and therefore the entire tamper is in vertical position. Rotation ensures that the tamping blade of the tamping pick drives itself into the ballast almost automatically.
2. As a rule, the tamping blade is at the target depth when all of it is below a line made by the bottom sleeper edges. At this depth (about 180–250 mm) the operator tips the tamper by slightly pulling the machine towards himself
3. At this angle, the vibrating tamping blade works directly in the opposite direction and effectively compacts the flowing ballast by pushing the ballast pebbles under the sleeper. Its design ensures that the operator can pull out the tamper easily.
4. Fine-tuning the tamping pick diameter and the operating frequency maximises the mechanical efficiency and the stability of the track bed: rotation ensures that the pebbles closely interlink in the flowing ballast.
5. The result is an excellent work output even in highly compact or very contaminated ballast.

Tamping as such is done quickly. Under real-life conditions, the time per sleeper has been found to be less than 2 minutes. We know from experience, though, the operators along the track will take even less time once they have become familiar with how the vibrating vertical tamper works. After a first briefing, operators will about halve the time needed when using conventional units.

• Air-cooled 2-stroke petrol engine
• Air-cooled 4-stroke petrol engine for ROTAMP Light
• Electric motor
• Hydraulic motor
• Battery for ROTAMP Light
• ROTAMP Short - short version

Vibrations let the ballast flow. The eccentric shaft of ROTAMP has been turned by 90°. An unbalanced mass revolving around the vertical machine axis sets off the required vibrations which is supported by a mild rotary motion of the tamping pick working itself into the ballast.

The oscillating motion distributes the energy of vibration across the entire tamping pick surface from where it goes into the surrounding ballast material.

This avoids energy peaks that might damage the ballast or the sleeper.

Efficiently filling up cavities largely depends on the tamping pick volume: ballast compaction results improve with the diameter.

On-site operators may not always hear acoustic warning signals. In case of need, ROTAMP's safety shutdown reliably makes the operator aware of dangers such as approaching trains: the supervisor can stop up to 4 tampers at once by simply pressing a button. This is telling the operators to immediately exit the danger zone.

Accessories required:

• 1 conversion kit per ROTAMP
• 1 power cord per ROTAMP
• Cable reel for 1-4 ROTAMPs