Power-hauling ahead Tulomsas

POWER-HAULING AHEAD

Tulomsas is a leading European locomotive and wagon builder and the main supplier to Turkish State Railways. The company also produces GE ‘PowerHaul’ locomotives under a partnership agreement with General Electric Transportation of the USA. Philip Yorke looks at a company that is driving forward its sales both in Europe and beyond and is expanding its on-going business with GE.

Tulomsas was founded in 1894 in Turkey and began as a small workshop focused on the maintenance and repair of the State Railway’s locomotives and wagons. Tulomsas grew steadily as an affiliate of the state owned railway company until in 1985 when it re-launched itself as the Turkish Locomotive and Engine industry and became a major player in the development and manufacture of locomotives and wagons. This strategic decision saw it evolve into a company that was both innovative and resourceful, thus leading to it become a significant locomotive manufacturer and a major exporter of its powerful, high-quality diesel locomotives.

Today Tulomsas is a leading heavy-industry manufacturing company that employs over 2000 people and operates seven state-ofthe-art production plants. Its manufacturing capabilities are impressive and the company currently produces 70 locomotives and over 100 diesel engines a year in addition to more than 500 bogie freight cars.

The company’s modern foundry and chemical process factory has an annual casting capacity of more than 2500 tons. In addition, tempering, annealing, case hardening, bitrating and induction hardening are all performed at Tulomsas’ Heat Treatment Facility, where chrome, nickel, silver and zinc coating and phosphating are conducted.

Certified to ISO9001 the company’s quality management system controls and optimises its extensive engineering production lines. Today Tulomsas offers advanced technology and innovative engineering solutions as well as high production capabilities in order to meet the increasing demands of modern rail travel. Tulomsas uses the most up-to-date production methods. These are based on EFQM protocols and total quality management by objectives, as well as by process management, effective planning and corporate identity studies. As far as the future is concerned, Tulomsas’ strategic goal is to scale-up its production of high-speed trains, DMUs (Diesel Multiple Units) and light rail vehicles.

Tulomsas is committed to increasing its overseas exports and will continue to set the standards of a significant enterprise within the Turkish heavy industry sector. Following this mandate, Tulomsas has been successful in extending its sales to countries outside its national borders. These include countries in the Middle East, North Africa and the Balkans. In addition, the company is targeting new customers throughout mainland Europe and Scandinavia.

New ‘PowerHaul’ technology

At the Innotrans Trade Fair in Berlin in 2012 Tulomsas announced that its strategic partnership with the General Electric Company (GE) had resulted in the first GE PowerHaul locomotive to be manufactured in Turkey. GE’s strategic partnership with Tulomsas allows the granting of licences to Tulomsas for producing locomotives for the European, Middle East and North African markets. GE provides the

cutting-edge technology and components, whilst Tulomsas contributes modern manufacturing and assembly facilities in Turkey for the PowerHaul series. This latest rail series is GE’s most technologically advanced, fuel efficient and low emission diesel locomotive.

Following on from this success, GE and Tulomsas announced in 2013 that a further 50 PowerHaul diesel locomotives were to be built by Tulomsas at their Eskisehir plant in Turkey. GE also confirmed that it is investing more than USD 150 million in the design and development of the latest PowerHaul locomotives and for the technology transfer to Turkey. In the longer term it is expected that the two high-tech companies will manufacture between 50 and 100 locomotives a year, of which up to 70 per cent would be exported. This will result in the generation of export revenues to Turkey of more than USD 1.5 billion.

The latest PowerHaul locomotive is described by the company as a state-of-the-art vehicle with significantly increased hauling capacity, improved fuel economy and very low emissions. The PowerHaul locomotive has a V-16 twin turbo diesel engine rated at 2750kW, which meets all European ‘Stage 111a’ emissions standards. The

modular construction is also designed to offer a flexible assembly platform, thereby permitting easy adaptation to meet local requirements worldwide.

On-going innovation

Innovation in its design and manufacturing processes has been key to the company’s notable success. Today Tulomsas makes an important contribution to Turkey’s economy through its unique expertise and the manufacturing capabilities that it has developed over the years.

The company’s engineering software programmes include ‘Solid Works’ and ‘Autocad’ as well as TUB_TAK, from the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey. The company also works in close collaboration with European universities and various professional industrial organisations. These studies focus on improving Tulomsas’ products in relation to safety, comfort, ergonomics and emission control. Rail manufacturing hub

With its railway transportation testing facility now operational and the increasing number of locomotive spares engineering companies clustering around Eskisehir, the city is set to become the engineering hub of the region’s railway systems.

Furthermore, the company’s latest PowerHaul series will now be utilised worldwide with GE transportation’s future projection of sales in Turkey in line with the government’s 2023 plans.

GE’s head of transportation Lorenzo Simonelli said, “We are pleased to confirm a US$900m investment plan in line with Turkey’s decision to double the length of its 12,000km long railway network by 2023.”

With the increasing global demand for high-speed, eco-friendly rail Transport, the future for Tulomsas looks assured. n

For further details of Tulomsas’ innovative railway products and services visit: www.tulomsas.com