United Group Rail Keeps Kazakhstan On The Rails

Location:	New South Wales
Country:	Australia
Client:	GE Locomotives
Engineer:	United Group Rail a division of United Group Limited
Products Used:	AS/NZS 3678 - 350 XLERPLATE® AS/NZS 3678 - 400 XLERPLATE®

Kazakhstan might not be the most obvious place for an Australian company to export, but this landlocked nation bordered by Russia and China is an important part of United Group Rail's business.

United Group Rail, a division of engineering and services company United Group Limited, is the largest end to end rail technology solutions provider in the Asia Pacific region. The company designs, manufactures and maintains passenger and freight rolling stock. In the freight sector this covers both locomotives and wagons.

One of the keys to this dominance in the locomotive market is its long term technology partnership with GE, Transportation. Since 1953, United Group Rail has delivered over 400 high performance GE locomotives to customers including Pacific National, QR, Pilbara Iron and BHP Billiton, and is one of only three recognised partners for GE, Transportation globally.

As part of the relationship, United Group Rail will provide 220 broad gauge bogie frames made from Grade 400 XLERPLATE® steel to Kazakhstan, where the latest phase of this locomotive build collaboration is taking place.

"This grade of plate was selected due to the extreme temperature requirements in Kazakhstan," United Group Rail's Manager Locomotives, Bogies & Wagon Engineering, Steven Bartlett said.

"These bogies need to operate in temperatures of minus 40 degrees Celsius, therefore the steel must maintain its impact resistant performance at that temperature too. It can be a very harsh environment in which to operate."

Not quite as harsh, but no less demanding, is another of United Group Rail's contracts to supply 15 GE Cv43-ACi locomotives to Pacific National Locomotives to meet increasing demand in New South Wales' Hunter Valley coalfields and beyond.

"Each 4300hp locomotive will offer increased traction and haulage capacity, so we needed to ensure the bogies could cope with this," United Group Rail's General Manager Freight Build, Stephen Carmody, said.

"We chose Grade 350 XLERPLATE® steel for the bogies due to its strength, durability and reliability."

Both projects mark a series of successes for United Group Rail, following on from the 156 fabricated locomotive bogies the company recently manufactured for the Qinghai Tibet Railway on behalf of China's Ministry of Railways.

United Group Rail won the prestigious Engineers Australia national Engineering Excellence Award for outstanding engineering achievement late last year.