Voith Turbo Safeset® Wins Major Contract from China for over 520 Safety Couplings
25 April 2006
The Voith Turbo product group 'Safeset Safety Couplings' based in Hudiksvall, Sweden, received a major contract from China in February 2006 for over 520 safety couplings valued at over €2 million. The final customer is Changchun Railway Vehicle Co. Ltd. (CRC), China's largest manufacturer of electrical rail vehicles. Their headquarters are located in Changchun City, in the Jilin province in the north east part of the country.
CRC is currently constructing 60 electric trains (electric multiple units - EMU) in cooperation with Alstom. This is being contracted with China's Ministry of Railways (MOR). They will be used on various regional routes with maximum speeds of up to 200km/h. 51 of the trains are being produced entirely by CRC. Each of these trains has 10 traction motors, each of which is equipped with a Voith Safeset safety coupling, type SR-N 140.
If there is an overload, the Safeset safety coupling interrupts the transmission between the input motor and the gearbox. These kinds of overloads can occur if there is an electric short circuit in the motor, or with bearing damage, for example. The Safeset coupling reliably avoids secondary damage and reduces failure times for repair.
High release precision, fast reactivation, and minimal maintenance expense for the Safeset coupling: the Chinese train builders were impressed with Voith technology. Other torque-limiting drive elements were not an option for this application.
This order means the future looks bright for Voith Turbo's Safeset to obtain other orders from China for safety couplings in rail vehicles. The CRC train reference will soundly contribute to this.
Voith Turbo, the specialist for hydrodynamic drives, couplings, and braking systems for use on the road, on rail, in industry, and in marine propulsion, is a Group Division of Voith.
Voith sets the standard for paper technology, power transmission, energy technology and for industrial services. Founded on January 1, 1867, today Voith, having approximately 30,000 employees, €3.5 billion in sales, and over 200 sites around the world, is one of the largest family-owned companies in Europe.
