Company re-enters locomotives industry

8th November 2013

  

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The general South African locomotive fleet is old and outdated, says designer, manufacturer and installer of transformers Powertech Transformers (PTT), which recently re-entered the locomotives industry, after the South African government made funding available for the upgrading of the entire rail network through an infrastructure development plan.

“Government’s insistence on sourcing equipment and services from local companies has been well documented and has opened opportunities for PTT to supply the industry,” says PTT communications manager Jacqui Burn.

PTT notes that many improve-ments have been made on transformers used in South Africa’s older locomotives, as well as on the planned new ones.

“The biggest potential for growth for our company within the locomotives industry lies in the manufacturing of on-board loco-motive transformers on the modern PTT manufacturing line in Pretoria, which is suited to high volumes,” says Powertech Transformers group executive Nico Günter.

The company is also planning to enter the inductor manufacturing industry to service the locomotives sector.

“PTT is also focusing on developing engineering skills by working with international locomotive, inductor, transformer, core and insulation companies which are willing to transfer their knowledge to local engineers,” he says.

Current Developments

PTT is looking at manufacturing a prototype transformer in its factory that was designed by its engineers, which will be specifically suited to the 599 electric locomotives Transnet is putting out to tender.

Most

of the tenders have already been issued and some have already been awarded. “Transnet has awarded a tender for 95 dual-voltage electric locomotives to electric locomotives manufacturer China South Rail,” says Günter.

A much larger tender is currently being evaluated for a further 1 064 locomotives, of which 599 are dual-voltage electric loco-motives and the remaining 465 are diesel locomotives. “The Passenger Rail Association of South Africa has also signed a R51-billion deal with French multinational conglomerate Alstom to supply 600 passenger trains comprising 3 600 coaches,” he outlines.

Further, on-board locomotive transformers require a slightly different manufacturing method. “Once PTT is required to start with manufacturing, employees will be trained on these methods,” adds Günter.

PTT notes that most electric locomotives have on-board line transformers, which are used to reduce line voltages to levels suitable to power electronic devices and to guarantee galvanic insulation to the on-board equipment.

“Unfortunately, such transformers are heavy, expensive and represent one of the main reasons why traction vehicles often exceed the targets for weight and dimensions,” he says, adding that two innovative conversion systems, which permit the use of transformers of greatly reduced size, have been studied. Suitable control and modulation techniques have also been developed.

In addition, a further analysis has been carried out to allow a fair comparison between one of the two new locomotive electrical drive systems and a conventional one, taking into account their reliability performances.

“Each railway project is unique; our on-board locomotive transformers are tailor-made to cater to a train’s needs and constraints in operation (route, environment and climate),” says Günter, adding that designs are fully modular, ensuring adapted dimensions, a mastered weight and the use of proven design and manufacturing techniques for 100% reliability in any situation.

Transformer Production Course

Further, PTT offers a transformer manu-facturing and design training course, which has been accredited by the South African Institute of Electrical Engineering. The training course has been awarded four con- tinuous professional development points and the validity period stretches from July 2012 to June 2015.

The course, which includes both practical and classroom training over five days, covers various aspects of transformer production, besides others, design processes (both elec-trical and mechanical), tank fabrication, insul- ation, paper-lapping, core-cutting, core stack-ing, winding manufacture, winding assembly, active part assembly, oil processing, tanking, quality assurance and control, factory testing, protection components, first line maintenance, transport and dispatch of the transformers, as well as research and development.

PTT has also developed an after-sales ser-vice division which offers complete peace of mind for its customers. Services include maintenance of transformers and related equipment for an extended period specific to each customer.

Powertech Insulation (formerly Calidus) was recently incorporated into the Trans-former Division of the Powertech group. This division manufactures insulation materials for power and distribution transformers and sup-plies transformer accessories for this market.

Powertech Transformers is a Level 3 con-tributor to broad-based black economic empowerment and its rating was recertified in June.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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