The Ultimate Buyer's Guide for Purchasing Rail Fish Bolt

09 Jun.,2025

 

How To Choose Fish Bolt?| AGICO Rail - Railway fasteners

How to choose fish bolt?

Mar 11,

The fish bolt is a rail fastener that is used with rail joint. There are various types of fish bolt on the railway material market, the customers can select suitable and applicable fish bolt to buy. But for a part of new buyers, they don’t know how to choose fish bolt. As a professional railway fastener manufacturer, AGICO Rail compare common fish bolt and high-strength insulating bolt to help you to know the fish bolt better and choose fish bolt easily.

Yongyang supply professional and honest service.

The material of fish bolt is low carbon alloy steel or medium carbon steel and after heat treatment (quenching, tempering), known as high strength fish bolt. The rest are called common fish bolts. High-strength fish bolts are made of high-strength steel or require large pre-tightening force.

High-strength insulating bolt is used to fasten steel rails. It is a kind of rail fastener such as rail clip, track spike, screw spike, tie plate, rail joint bar, etc. High strength fishtail bolts have several grades such as 8.8, 9.8, 10.9 and 12.9.High strength fish bolts are mostly used for the connection of bridge or steel rail.

High-strength insulating bolt and fish bolt are two common types of rail bolt. They are both used to fix steel rails, and what’s the difference between high-strength insulating bolt and fish bolt?

Comparison of high-strength insulating bolt and fish bolt

High strength fish bolts are designed to withstand loads greater than normal bolts of the same specification. The ordinary fish bolts are made of Q235 (A3). In order to distinguish high-strength fish bolts and ordinary fish bolts, and we will compare and analyze the differences between them through multiple aspects.

  • From the view of material, the high strength fish bolt uses the high strength material to manufacture. Bolts, nuts and washers are made of high strength steel, such as 45 steel, 40 boron steel, and 20 manganese titanium boron steel, 35CrMoA. Ordinary bolts are usually made of Q235 steel.
  • From the view of strength grade, the high strength fish bolt has been widely used. Two common intensity grades include 8.8s and 10.9s , of which 10.9 is the most common. The strength of ordinary fishtail bolts is much lower in grades 4.8, 6.8 and 6.8. 
  • According to the characteristics of the force, the high strength fish bolts apply pretension and transmit external force by friction. The normal fish bolt is connected by the shear resistance of the bolt rod and the pressure of the hole wall to transfer the shear force. The pretension produced when tightening the nut is very small and its influence can be ignored.
  • From the view of use of fish bolt, common fish bolts can be reused, but high-strength fish bolts cannot be reused. High strength bolts are generally used for permanent connections. The high strength fish bolt is the pre-stressed bolt, the friction type torque wrench applies the specified prestressing force, the pressure type twists off the plum head. The common fish bolt has poor shear resistance and can be used in the secondary structure. Ordinary fish bolts only need to be tightened.

In conclusion, high-strength fish bolt connection has the advantages of simple construction, good mechanical performance, removable, fatigue resistance, and not loose under the action of dynamic load, in a word, itis a very promising connection method. The high strength fish bolt uses the specially-made wrench to tighten the nut, the bolt produce the huge but the controlled pre-tension, through the nut and the pad, also apply same pre-pressure to the connected piece.

Do you have a full guide of fish bolt? We hope you can know more about high-strength fish bolt and understand the difference between high strength insulation bolts and ordinary fish bolts.     

5 Tips about Buying Railroad Spikes Online - Railway fasteners

Type & size of railroad spikes

Before buying railroad spikes, the first thing should be considered is the type and size, there are two common types on the market: the screw spike and the dog spike.

Screw spike

The screw spike refers to a large metal screw that is usually used to fasten rails, and also used to screw a tie plate. Based on the different use, standard of rail track, and specific geographic requirements like length, diameters, drive heads, etc. railroad screw spike can generally  be divided into 4 types, including Ss series sleeper screw, square head screw spike, hexagon screw spike and double-head screw spike.

Ss series sleeper screw is a typical kind of rail spikes, the common sizes include Ss 1/130 , Ss 1/150 , Ss 2/180,  Ss 5/150 , Ss 6/150,  Ss 7/180 , Ss 8/140 , Ss 8/150, etc.

If you want to learn more, please visit our website Rail Fish Bolt.

Square head screw spikes get their name from its square head, and common sizes include M22*145, M22*155, M22*165, M22*185, M22*195, etc.

As the name implies, the Hexagon screw spike has a hexagon head, and common sizes include M22*145, M22*155, M22*165, M22*185, M22*195, and so on.

Double-head screw spike is usually used with Nabla clip fastening system, and it is widely used in Africa, and common size is 23×174.

Dog spike

As a primary type of railway spikes, the dog spike has an L-shape head and a square shank, which is used to fasten railroad track to wooden ties. The dog spike is so called because its two lugs on the rail head that looks like a dog’s head. The underside of spike is sloped to fit the surface of the rail base. The dog spike is applied in North America, and common spikes are 5/8”*6” and the 9/16”*5-1/2”.

Material & standard of railroad spike

It is necessary for you to learn the materials and standards before buying railroad spikes.

  • At present the railroad spike on the market is primarily made out of carbon steel, such as Q235 carbon steel, Q 345B carbon steel, Q345D carbon steel, 45# (GB standard) carbon steel, 40Cr steel, 35CrMoA steel and20MnTiB. Each of them has its own features, you can choose railway spikes based on your need.
  • Besides, the surface of railroad spikes can be different according to different requirements, including plain, black, hot dipped galvanized, or sherardized, etc.
  • For different kinds of rail spikes, there are many standards like GB, DIN, ISO, ANSI/ASTM, B7, BS, JIS, etc.

Quality control

As we all know, quality control is a vital factor in purchasing product, it is important to focus on strict quality control and qualification certificate in terms of railroad spike. As for strict quality control, it is specific in the quality control link of whole process of production. And the common certificates include CRCC, ISO and so on.

Service

Besides that, a wide range of the service around rail spikes was provided by the manufacturer, which will be a related consideration, such as after-sale service, shipment service, sampling service, etc. for example, there are various kinds of railroad spike packing methods, including:

  • Double-layer woven bag+ free-fumigation pallet;
  • Steel Drum+ Pallet;
  •  Wooden box,
You need make sure whether the manufacturer can provide the right method you want. Similarly, the shipment service is convenient or not, the sampling service is free or not, these questions should be taken into consideration.

Cost & price

In addition to these factors mentioned above, the price of rail road spike is one of the most important factors, buying railroad spikes, in a sense, it is a process of finding a best railroad spike price, comparing price on railroad spike from different manufacturers, calculating the cost, and finding cost-effective railroad spikes.

In conclusion, as a qualified buyer, all you need to do is take all these factors into account, and make a right purchase decision on buying railroad spike online.

For more information, please visit I-Beam Steel for Sale.