DALIAN Locomotive & Rolling Stock works has begun producing parts for Voith SET-553 final drives, which will be assembled with gears and pinions produced at Voith Turbo’s plant in Heidenheim, Germany.
A team of up to 20 people from the German firm spent several months in China, negotiating the contracts for partial local production of the SET-553, then establishing project management, assembly and testing systems.
Six of the 1216 kg drives will be required by each of 240 electric locomotives which are being built by DLoco for use on heavy coal trains between the north and southeast of China. The first 20 of the 7·5MW locos are expected to be completed by the end of 2007, and Voith Turbo anticipates this initial contract will act as a reference for its products, giving the firm access to the growing Chinese market.
H Cooling systems on 160 shunters being built by Vossloh España for Fret SNCF will feature Voith Turbo’s VTCsmart control system. The BB460000 locos are the first application of VTCsmart, which is designed for ambient temperatures of -40íC to +105íC.
