20.08.15
Wabtec increases wheel-set servicing capacity
Wabtec Rail Ltd has increased its capacity for servicing wheel-sets at its Doncaster depot with the installation of a self-contained blast-room with automatic abrasive recovery from Hodge Clemco (HC).
An existing HC blast-room had been in use at the works in South Yorkshire for eight years, but to meet growing demand it has installed a second-blast room as part of a new work-flow system.
Costing around £450,000, it will allow the company to process 150 wheel-sets a week.
The blast-room measures 6m long x 3m wide x 2.4m high overall and incorporates a 4m x 3m work chamber with double doors at both ends and a plant room containing a blast machine, media recovery system and control panel.
Wheel-sets are delivered to the blast-room on rail track that runs from an external storage area and integrates with a pneumatic manipulator inside the room that allows them to be moved to a convenient position for cleaning. This work is performed with a high-production single-chamber direct-pressure unit, using aluminium oxide abrasive.
Two further HC blast-rooms at Wabtec are used for cleaning bogies and rolling stock components.