Trelleborg suspension on Manilla's light railway
02 September 2010
Metalastik® Chevron™ springs from Trelleborg have been chosen to replace a competitor's design in light rail vehicles running on Manila's light transit network.
Solving creep problems, the Trelleborg product is expected to provide extended life for the operator.
“The original chevron-type springs fitted in the primary suspension were failing after only two and a half years due to excessive creep in the rubber,” says Tony Carter, General Manager of Trelleborg Industrial AVS in China. “Trelleborg Industrial AVS was chosen to supply the replacements because it is a leader in low-creep technologies. These have been proven widely in Asian applications, such as the Singapore Metro, the Hong Kong MTRC and Kuala Lumpur's KTMB.”
Trelleborg Chevron™ springs are robust rubber/metal laminated assemblies designed to absorb high levels of shock and vibration over an extended service life. They are fitted in pairs on either side of the axle box in the primary suspension of the bogie to guide the wheel sets in the horizontal direction and carry the static and dynamic loads. Structure-borne noise transmission is reduced by the rubber elements in the units and a rubber buffer, mounted on top of each axle-bearing housing limits the vertical deflection between the frame and the wheel set.
The LRVs built by Kinki Sharyo of Japan for the Manila Light Rail Transit Authority are a third-generation design consisting of four vehicles, each with two articulated car-bodies and three bogies. They operate on 750 V DC overhead power lines and have a maximum capacity of 66 passengers per vehicle. The car-bodies are 26m in length and fabricated from stainless steel, finished in a bold blue and yellow livery.
The Manila Light Rail Transit System or LRT, is the main rail system serving the metropolitan area of Manila. Line 1 or LRT-1, known as the Yellow Line, is one of two lines, although a third is also planned. Most of the system is elevated and it is currently being expanded in order to ease road congestion in the Philippine capital. The improvements include widening and re-signaling of Line 1, which over the last ten years has more than doubled the number of peak-time passengers carried to 40,000 an hour.