ABUS crane systems at NedTrain Componentenin the Netherlands

Thinking of means of transport in the Netherlands the bicycle comes to mind straight away. This country is marked by cycle paths all over. However, the railways too can boast an impressive 2,800 kilometres in length: The Dutch company, Nederlandse Spoorwegen N.V., the equivalent of the former British Rail, runs about 4,800 train journeys a day carrying up to 1.2 million passengers. This huge amount of traffic requires trains to be very reliable if they are to be on time. Regular maintenance is required to guarantee the failure rate of trains is as small as possible.

 
NedTrain – the partner for the maintenance of trains
The company NedTrain has specialised in maintaining trains. For more than 165 years NedTrain has made sure that trains run properly and safely. NedTrain is a private company and belongs 100% to the Dutch Rail. NedTrain is present at 30 strategic sites on the rail net ensuring maintenance, service, cleaning, and overhaul of the trains.

 
The company NedTrain Componenten
NedTrain Componenten overhauls the individual components of the trains. This includes huge and complex units such as compressors and current collectors as well as small parts such as spare parts for brakes. The company features highly specialised production lines such as pneumatics, electronics and mechanics in order to master these tasks. These different departments are responsible for the overhaul of the parts which, after revision, are considered to be functionally new parts. High quality and short delivery times are given priority.

 
NedTrain’s new plant at Berkel Enschot
In 2007 NedTrain started to design a new plant for the components’ section of its business. One key point of this design was the aim to make this new plant a state-of-the-art one within Europe, another point was to make the new building a role model of quality, safety, order, and cleanliness for similar companies. The final design saw a production hall (194.4 metres long) being built with two storage buildings behind it. This layout allows a high degree of standardisation as well as flexibility while focusing on the production flow. The two storage buildings have a size of 3,400 square metres each while the production amounts to 6,500 square metres. There are also some adjoining rooms, offices, and a canteen.

ABUS products in use
NedTrain choose Kraansystemen BV (www.abus-kraansystemen.nl), the Dutch daughter company of ABUS Kransysteme GmbH, to find a solution for the internal transport tasks. ABUS supplied a total of 45 single girder cranes with load capacities ranging from 500 kg to 3,200 kg, and 13 suspended rail systems (double girder cranes for load capacities between 350 and 400 kg), and 3 jib cranes (100 kg SWL), as well as one double girder overhead travelling crane. NedTrain also relies on ABUS cranes for future extensions of its workplaces.

 
ABUS – strong also in the service
ABUS Kraansystemen did not only supply and install the crane systems but is also responsible for the maintenance and the annual service inspection of the hoists in use. This minimises expensive down-times and reduces the risk of accidents. ABUS Kraansystemen’s staff is fully trained to meet the special requirements of its customer NedTrain: service engineers are available 24/7 in order to guarantee the optimal availability of the hoists. Thus ABUS does its bit too to make sure that cranes and trains are kept running smoothly and that 1.2 million passengers are reaching their destination safely.