Chess Engineering - Suspension and Gangway Components

Founded in 1967, Chess Engineering is a multi-skilled engineering company made up of four main divisions:

• Fabrication, machining, fitting and design of steel products
• Ground support equipment
• Design, manufacture, upgrade and installation of products including exhaust conditioners, spark arrestors, reverse beepers, strobes, lighting packages, engine protection systems, forklift attachments, electric pallet and reach trucks, stackers, and boom lifts and tugs
• Engineered rubber products for vibration isolation

RAIL VEHICLE PRIMARY SUSPENSION COMPONENTS

Vulcanite, part of Chess Engineering, specialise in rail engineering. The company designs, develops, manufactures and supplies critical primary suspension components including heavy and light passenger vehicles, locomotives and track maintenance vehicles.

Axle box mountings include chevron, megi and conical springs. Vulcanite utilises the latest rubber compounds and technology to provide optimum low creep and fatigue life characteristics for all components.

ROLLING STOCK SECONDARY SUSPENSION COMPONENTS

Vulcanite designs, develops, manufactures and supplies critical secondary suspension components for heavy and light passenger vehicles, locomotives and track maintenance vehicles. These components include anti-roll bar components, torsion and traction rod bushings, lateral buffers and centre-pivot bushings, bolster pads, etc.

RESILIENT BUSHINGS

A complete range of resilient bushings that are maintenance-free, universal joints to accommodate radial, axial and torsional shocks in articulated connectors are also designed by Vulcanite. These include radial-arm pivot bushes, centre-pivot bushes, propulsion motor to gear link bushings and anti-roll bar bushings.

RAIL INFRASTRUCTURE COMPONENTS

Vulcanite designs, engineers and manufactures many other resilient components for both light and heavy rail applications. These products include infrastructure components such as platform gap fillers and rail pads, as well as other components such as XPT drive links, traction-motor couplings, and motor-nose mountings.

RAIL INTER-CAR GANGWAY SEALS

We alsomanufacture a range of inter-car gangway seals as part of our commitment to meeting the needs of local and overseas rolling stock manufactures, operators and maintenance operations.

INTER-CAR GANGWAY BELLOWS

Vulcanite manufactures a range of inter-car gangway bellows as part of our commitment to meeting the needs of local and overseas rolling stock manufactures, operators and maintenance facilitators.

We can design and manufacture to specific client requirements, which include fire standards such as the French standard NF 16-101 and Australian standard AS1530-3, which are suitable for stringent underground requirements.

Our quality materials range from various fabrics to rubber compounds suitable for diverse applications and conditions – including UV protection, flammability and toxic gas emission control – to properties requiring sound insulation.

Our current range includes the Tangara and Intercity gangway bellows for the State Rail of New South Wales, inter-car gangway bellows for the new Hillside X’Trapolis train on the Melbourne suburban rail network, and fabric-style bellows to suit Volvo articulated buses for State Transit NSW.

INTER-CAR GANGWAY FIRE-RETARDANT BELLOWS

Vulcanite developed and manufactured special fire-retardant rubber intercar gangway bellows for Alstom Australia as part of the local supply content for the X'Trapolis train now operating on the Melbourne suburban network.

Vulcanite have also developed and replaced the complete inter-car gangway on Countrylink's XPT, Explorer and Endeavour interstate trains.

ABOUT CHESS ENGINEERING

Chess' technical services are not just confined to our workshop; we can undertake off-site contracts such as large turnkey projects, factory maintenance shutdowns and complete plant re-locations.

We can design and manufacture anything from the smallest machine components for complex machinery to large industrial systems for bulk materials handling, mine dewatering and large processing applications.

Our team of design engineers, by using some of the latest CAD equipment (including 3-D techniques) can design and develop cost-effective, practical means of achieving the required outcome.