Pictured above: Colin Flack, chief executive of the
Rail Alliance, is pictured left with Paul Hines, general manager of
Railweight.
A Smethwick company has won new business to help crash test rail
coaches for the European market, with help from UK Trade &
Investment.
Railweight, of Foundry Lane, is part of Avery Weigh-Tronix, one
of the world's leading weighing companies.
The business, which was established over 50 years ago and has
ten employees, develops bespoke weighing solutions for the railway
sector and its systems are in use worldwide in almost every
industry connected to rail networks.
Leading-edge automotive consultancy MIRA in Nuneaton had
contacted Colin Flack of the Rail Alliance for assistance with
their initiative to conduct safety tests in accordance with the
latest European standards for an overseas customer.
Railweight's general manager, Paul Hines, said: "I had met Colin
through Rail Alliance networking opportunities at the transport
technology trade fair Innotrans in Germany last year. Railweight
attended with UK Trade & Investment's Rail Cluster to
investigate potential new export markets, and we won the business
as a direct result of this.
"The safety testing involved shunting two rail vehicles together
at low speed to establish the impact dynamics. In just ten days,
the end customer needed to determine precisely how much the two
vehicles weighed before crash testing could start.
"We devised and set up a system at the Long Marston test track
to provide weight data of each vehicle as it passed over the
weighing transducers and were able to meet the client's challenging
timescale."
Colin Flack, chief executive of the Rail Alliance, said: "As
European guidelines for the building of high speed trains have
recently changed, this crash testing was the first of its kind.
Paul and his team were pivotal to its success."
Sue Barnes, UK Trade & Investment's Rail Cluster
co-ordinator for the region, manages the international element of
the Advantage West Midlands business cluster.
She said: "Railweight's success demonstrates how organised group
activity at overseas exhibitions brings companies together. This
not only helps to build the industry in this region but also helps
win business from abroad."