Our experience in the railway industry provides us with the necessary knowledge and understanding of many vehicle systems and components. To supplement our vehicle products, a variety of test rigs have been manufactured to aid the development of new equipment and verification of manufacturing process.

Applications

Train Carriage Movement Simulator
The movement and articulation between two carriage ends can be significant, especially whilst the train is travelling in its maintenance depots where small, tight track bend radii are often found. The services that pass between the carriages are carried through in ducting and wiring looms, these service carriers need to be strong and durable to stand up to the constant inter carriage movements that occurs during operation.

To ensure the service carriers are built to the correct specification, a carriage movement simulator was required. A simulator was designed and constructed that enabled one carriage end to move relative to another. The type of movements needed to emulate real carriage displacement was complex, meaning movements in X, Y, Z, yaw, roll, and pitch were required.

The simulator movements were achieved using 5 hydraulic cylinders, driven by load independent, proportional valves. The proportional valves were controlled by a PLC that allowed all 5 cylinders to move simultaneously under controlled conditions. The simulator operator controlled the entire system through PC based programs, located in a near by control room.

Bogie Rotational Stiffness Test Rig
The stiffness of bogie/vehicle suspension is very important to ensure safe ride and handling of the vehicles. A test rig was required to measure the rotational stiffness between a carriage and bogie to ascertain the rotational torque at specific bogie angular displacements.

The test rig was designed to generate a ±10.5° bogie rotation underneath the vehicle. The rig was driven by a closed loop hydraulic system which was used in conjunction with a touch screen controller. The control system allowed automatic cycle, step and inch operations to occur at various velocities set by the operator. In addition to the mechanical and electrical engineering activities, the civil design to locate and support the test rig was supplied.

Bogie Ride Height Press
Test rigs have been provided to aid the process of bogie manufacture. With modern production methods, it is essential that bogies are pre-set for correct ride height, weight distribution and also rail to bogie electrical resistance prior to being installed under the vehicle. The same philosophy also applies to reconditioned/remanufactured bogies. It is becoming more important to verify that the performance of each reconditioned bogie meets the full dynamic specification set out in the original design.

The test rig has been designed as a modular construction, allowing various functions to be selected to meet a specific test requirement. The rig can provide many functions such as suspension 'settling' (oscillation), setting of the ride height, setting of the weight distribution to individual wheels, measurement of the rail/wheel to bogie electrical impedance, dynamic load/deflection characteristic to verify suspension performance and dynamic brake performance testing. The test rig is controlled using a touch screen display, the test results can be either printed out or downloaded, via its network connection.