Triennial Report 2003 - CHARMEC

Lucchini Sweden AB (1995 and 1987)(formerly Adtranz Wheelset)Railway wheelset manufacturer in Surahammar with 70employees. The firm is a fully-owned subsidiary of theLucchini Group in Italy (worldwide, Lucchini has about10,000 employees in 10 countries). Areas of interest forLucchini Sweden are the design, manufacturing, mounting,running, braking and maintenance of wheelsets. Newmaterials for wheelsets and noise emission from wheelsare of particular interest. The main buyers of the wheelsetsare the passenger train operator sj, the freight trainoperator Green Cargo and Bombardier TransportationSweden, but export of products and services is becomingincreasingly important.SAB WABCO Group AB (1997)One of the largest railway brake system suppliers in theworld with headquarters in Malmö and with productionunits in Sweden, Germany, France, Italy, uk and severalother countries. The total number of employees is 1800,of whom 130 are located in Sweden. The main areaof interest in the co-operation with charmec is brakesystems. New overall concepts are being developed forsignal transfer along the train. The components for treadbraking of freight trains are being investigated and, inparticular, the interaction of brake block and wheel treadis of interest. New and better materials for the blocksare sought. sab wabco was recently sold by the CardoGroup to the investment fund Vestar.SL Infrateknik AB (2003)sl (Storstockholms Lokaltrafik) is the Stockholm UrbanTransit Authority. sl Infrateknik administers the operation,maintenance and renewal of all fixed railway installations,rolling stock and real estates within the GreaterStockholm Area railway network. The network consistsof three underground lines, three local railways and twotram lines with a total track length of 450 km. sl alsooperates two commuter lines on Banverket tracks. Thesesystems cater for about 1.3 million passenger trips everyday. charmec’s partner is the headquarters in Stockholm,mainly the track and rolling stock departments.Areas of main interest are noise and vibration, trackand vehicle maintenance, and materials. Of particularinterest are the wear and dynamics of switches and alsostructure-borne noise and material fatigue problems. slInfrateknik expects that the charmec research projectswill provide an increased understanding and thereby abetter platform for improving technical solutions andmaintenance work for track structure and rolling stock.TrainTech Engineering (1995 and 1992)Sweden ABState-owned technical consultancy in the railway vehiclefield with a total of 100 employees at the office in Solnaand the Hagalund laboratories. The annual turnover isabout meuro 9 (2002). The former “sj Teknikdivisionen”(Technical Division of sj, the former Swedish StateRailways) was incorporated in 2001. The EuroMaintcompany with its daughter TrainTech EngineeringSweden ab was then established. Areas of interest in theco-operation with charmec are the design, mounting,running, braking and maintenance of railway wheelsets,especially life estimations and reprofiling practice for thewheels. Of particular interest are the mechanisms behindso-called wheel flats on the treads as caused by unintentionalbraking and sliding of the wheels. Also in greatdemand among TrainTech’s customers is research intocontact conditions wheel/rail, safety technology, noiseproblems, new materials and improved brake systems.In November 2003, TrainTech Engineering Sweden wassold to the British company Interfleet Technology.voestalpine Bahnsysteme GmbH (2003 and 2002)The company voestalpine Schienen GmbH runs Europe’slargest rail rolling mill in Leoben/Donawitz, Austria.All rails can be produced in supply lengths up to 120 mand with head special hardened (hsh) quality. The railrolling mill Thyssen Schienen Technik in Duisburg, Germany,also belongs to the company. Another branch ofvoestalpine Bahnsysteme is the manufacturer vae agof switches and crossings headquartered in Zeltweg,Austria, with several special track production companiesworldwide. voestalpine Bahnsysteme has about 7000 employees.For the financial year 1 April 2002 – 31 March2003 the sales of the voestalpine Group (including itssteel division and some minor other divisions) amountedto meuro 4392.67