Railway operations can often be optimised by implementing improved technologies and their benefits should significantly compensate the operation costs. Thus, for increasing the traffic capacity, it is vital to implement modern bogie technologies.
Due to its function, as link between the track and the vehicle, the bogie has a great role in enhancing the vehicle performance and in reducing maintenance costs: almost third the maintenance costs are related to the bogie system. “By intelligently designing bogies, which have to be easy to maintain and enhanced with components that reduce wear, they help cutting the travel time of trains, as well as maintenance costs”, declared Sebastien Ridremont, Bombardier’s Marketing and Sales Manager. As long as developing technologies for manufacture of bogies will help expand the lifecycle of vehicles, optimise maintenance, increase energy efficiency and reduce emissions, the railway operator will be determined to purchase new bogies. For operators, this means efficiency by minimising maintenance costs, which, in turn, means reinvesting the money in activity developing project and implicitly, maximising profits.
Considerable share on bogie performance, quality and cost has the frame.
Frame construction technologies increase productivity
“Recent developments in frame technology are regarding the construction of the frame: laser welding of frames or mechanical fitting, such as cold joint frames”, pointed out Bombardier’s representative. To meet demands, experts in the area develop technologies for increasing productivity. A modern such technology consists in the use of an equipment specialised for processing a bogie frame. If, until just recently, one of the greatest problems of bogie manufacturers was the time for frame construction, currently, this system develops the same bogie frame at larger scale and with enhanced productivity. For example, Stadler Rail uses a robot system for welding bogies. Several variants were tested before reaching this alternative, among these variants, the laser welding. “Laser welding were rejected on financial and technical grounds, because the tolerance of materials and components demand additional costs”, explained Roland Mayer, Manager of the Bogie Center within Stadler Winterthur. The solution proved successful, as the robot system ensures almost a two-fold growth in productivity, with significant improvements in terms of quality.
by Pamela Luică
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