Atlas Rail to the Rescue

Tuesday, 19 Aug 2008

Yardway, a Hong Kong transportation equipment provider with operations in China, was stopped in its tracks after one of its equipment suppliers failed to commission equipment due to technical difficulties. Atlas Rail, a Melbourne based company that supplies and supports maintenance equipment for the rail industry, was called upon to fix the problems and commission the equipment.

Even though the equipment was supplied by a competitor, that failed to work through the problems, Atlas Rail stepped in to solve the issues on the under floor wheel lathes that had been installed for Yardway in Shanghai.

Significant mechanical issues existed that had halted the commissioning of the equipment and these needed to be resolved. This included solving the problem of the train hold-down devices that were 50mm outside of the required specifications. Substantial modifications were needed to the machinery to enable it to be commissioned and this required two highly skilled members of Atlas Rail to be located on-site at Shanghai for five weeks.

"We sent two of our engineering staff to Shanghai to work on the equipment," said Chris Brugeaud, General Manager Atlas Rail. "They worked hand-in-hand with Yardway personnel to ensure the machinery was commissioned as required." After the five weeks they were successful in completing the required wheel profile cutting on the first machine and passed on a significant amount of knowledge to the Yardway engineers, who then carried on the work for the second machine.

"One of the key frustrations of prospective Chinese customers is the failure of Original Equipment Manufacturers to provide the appropriate level of support to their equipment," said Mr Brugeaud. "This work goes a long way in establishing Atlas Rail as a company that has the capability of being able to support not only its own product, but competitor's products as well."

"The feedback from Yardway was extremely positive as to the quality of support provided by Atlas Rail and the company has already followed-up with the possibility of more work in China."

Atlas Rail is a division of Marand Precision Engineering, see www.marand.com.au

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