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one of Sweden’s leading manufacturers in the production and development of prefabricated concrete products, Abetong’s annual turnover is around SEK 1200 and it employs over 520 people. Abetong is a member of HeidelbergCement Northern Europe, a global leader in aggregates and a prominent player in the fields of cement, concrete and other downstream activities with nearly 53,000 employees in 2500 locations in over 40 countries. Abetong is comprosed of four strong divisions, with 14 sales units throughout Sweden. The divisions focus on prefabricated concrete elements for the housing industry, the agricultural sector and the railway market. Ulf Malmqvist is the general manager for the international railway industry. He told Industry Europe the latest news from his division as its recent development gets ready to be launched to the market. He said, “We are very excited to talk about our new product which is soon to be introduced to the wider global market. It’s a unique product, and one which we know is perfectly in tune with the changing needs of the railway industry.”
54 Industry Europe
New ways for railways Abetong’s innovative new product is focused on both the environment and the railway industry. A timber replacement sleeper that is made of pre-stressed concrete, the Tuned Concrete Sleeper, or TCS, has taken many years of expert development. Mr Bolmsvik continued, “Our Tuned Concrete Sleeper has been uniquely tuned to mimic the properties of a timber sleeper, but it is made of prestressed concrete. This gives it the performance of a timber sleeper but without the major drawbacks of an ordinary timber sleeper. It is perfectly suited to spot sleeper replacement on the type of ageing railway lines that keep some communities connected but that are not well-maintained.” The key aspect of the Abetong TCS is the tuning process. The prestressed concrete sleeper is tuned using a patent-pending tuning machine to ensure that it gives the TCS similar characteristics to the timber sleepers, which in turn eliminates the creation of stiff points at the position of the alternative timber sleepers. Whilst there are almost no new railway lines built using timber sleepers, there are many
railways, particularly in Sweden and Europe in general that are still running on these hardto-maintain timber sleepers. Creating a huge maintenance issue that is costly and logistically difficult, the timber sleeper lines are an integral part of many rural communities. Mr Malmqvist explained, “There are often political issues for wanting to keep costs down on rural railway lines, but for the people in these communities the railways are a vital lifeline. Also, these lines are often used as secondary lines for transporting goods and people to the main lines. So they need to be maintained but at an affordable price. Until now, there has been no alternative for replacing damaged timber sleepers. But thanks to the TCS we can meet this demand.”
Cost effective The issue with railway lines equipped with traditional timber sleepers is that the ballast under the sleepers do not cope with the loads produced by the new type of sleepers used in modern railway construction. So when the ballast needs replacing at huge cost, the suggestion of closing the track is often raised, but
