A railway industry first Abetong

A RAILWAY INDUSTRY FIRST

Swedish company Abetong has a global reputation for its production and development of prefabricated concrete products. Industry Europe looks at the reasons behind its success and at how its dedication to innovation allows it to remain at the forefront of this sector.

AS one of Sweden’s leading manufacturers in the production and development of prefabricated concrete products, Abetong’s annual turnover is around 930 MSEK and it employs over 530 people. It 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 60,000 employees in 2600 locations in over 50 countries.

Abetong is comprised of four strong divisions, with 14 sales units throughout Sweden. The divisions focus on tanks, rail and railroad, additional products and special concrete.

Unique solution for rail

Last year (2013) the company launched a unique new product 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, took many years of expert development. A company spokesperson explained: “Our Tuned Concrete Sleeper has been uniquely tuned to mimic the properties of a timber sleeper, but it is made of pre-stressed concrete. This gives it the performance of a timber sleeper but without the associated issues. It is perfectly suited to spot sleeper replacement on the type of ageing railway lines that keep some communities connected but are not well-maintained.”

The key aspect of the Abetong TCS is the tuning process. The pre-stressed concrete sleeper is tuned using the patent-pending tuning machine to ensure there are no issues with common problems such as an unstable track or when the train changes speed.

Whilst there are almost no new railways lines built using timber sleepers, there are many railways particularly in Sweden and Europe 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.

“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 mainlines. 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 traditional timber sleepers is that the ballast under the sleepers often becomes damaged over time, but it is not strong enough to be replaced with 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 now Abetong’s TCS can be employed instead. With a key benefit that the TCS can be used for ‘spot sleeper replacement’, randomly mixed in with good

timber sleepers that do not need replacing, the issues of cost versus communities wanting to keep their active railway are addressed.

Our interviewee explained how the demand for the TCS is very likely to dramatically increase in the near future: “There are changes to the European railway industry that will rapidly boost the demand for our Tuned Concrete Sleeper as there is no alternative. This is why we are in the process of obtaining two patents for it – for the features of the product and for the tuning machine – in order to protect our innovation.”

The changes to the European railway industry will soon see a ban on using poisonous creosote in railway sleepers. With all traditional timber sleepers currently coated in creosote, Abetong’s timber replacement sleeper is the only alternative for these applications. The ban has been designed in such a way that permission can be granted to continue with creosoted sleepers if there is no suitable alternative, so Abetong has been working hard to inform the relevant players in the European railway industry that there is a suitable alternative. The TCS is an effective alternative that is safe and easy to install.

In Spring this year (2014) Abetong completed the increase in its production capacity in order to be prepared for the expected upturn in demand. Its priority is to boost the awareness of its ecologically-responsible timber replacement sleeper to railway industries worldwide. n