WRs travellers can expect more safe and jerk free travel in future. To enhance the safety and comfort level of passengers, WR has started checking of main springs of its Linke Hofmann Busch (LHB) coaches with state of art automatic machine from Thursday, January 27 which is known as Magnaflux Testing Machine.
"Cost of this machine is around Rs 22 lakh , It will able to detect hair cracks of the springs of LHB coaches also which is not possible to detect with naked eyes" said an officials adding that this machine will also help in weeding out defective springs during POH ( periodical overhauling) thus avoiding line failures and detention .In last 10 months ( between April 2021 to 28 January 2022) 11 spring failure reported in WR .
"For the checking of springs of LHB coaches several machines already available on WR but those machines are fit for testing of smaller size springs only . In that way, this is the 1st machine of its kind on WR, which are able check big springs of LHB coaches, which was earlier done manually " said an officials of WR.
Spring not only help to negotiate the balance of coaches on curvature but it also controll the jerk while running. When asked, can crack in spring leads to derailment, a senior officer of WR said , initially no ,but crack in spring increase the jerk and also affect the balance of axle load of coach which will not be toleratable.
Conferming the development a senior officer of Western Railway said, on January 27th 2022, General Manager Alok Kansal conducted the inspection of Lower Parel Workshop and also inaugurated several upgraded and advanced technology at the Workshop including Magnaflux Testing Machine, which will be prove game changer to control the spring failure of LHB coaches.
Carriage Repair Workshop based at Lower Parel in the city of Mumbai, is a premier Broad gauge coaching workshop of Western Railway, India. The workshop undertakes the periodic overhauling of coaches of main line passenger trains . Currently WR has 1469 air conditioned LHB coaches and 1614 non air conditioned LHB coaches. Periodical overhauling of most of thses coaches will be done in Lower Parel Workshop .
Apart from inauguration of Magnaflux Testing Machine, Kansal also inaugurated the RFID card based Access Control System . He also inspected the Heritage Clock located at the Workshop. This clock is more than a century old and Kansal appreciated for preserving this valuable piece of heritage and for its upkeep. Further, Kansal conducted inspection of railway carriages and coaches such as Accident Relief Train. A detailed inspection of Welding Simulator, Model Rooms, Fitting Shops, Wheel Shop, etc. was undertaken. Kansal also inspected the floor, where the secondary suspension system components were being tested for tensile test, Magnaflux etc to ascertain the efficacy of the Quality.
