Heavy Fabrication for the Railway Industry
Railway components endure millions of fatigue cycles, extreme dynamic loads, and harsh weather conditions over decades of service. The structural integrity of locomotive base frames and bogies (trucks) is critical not just for performance, but for passenger and freight safety.
Openex is a trusted contract manufacturer for global railway OEMs. With our 180-acre facility, we have the sheer floor space and heavy lifting capacity (up to 250 tons) required to fabricate, weld, and machine massive locomotive underframes, high-speed rail bogie frames, and heavy freight railcar chassis entirely under one roof.
Railway Frame Manufacturing Specs
We custom manufacture rail equipment to strict OEM blueprints and international transit standards. Below are our general facility capacities:
| Frame Types Manufactured | Locomotive Base Frames, Bogie Frames, Railcar Underframes, Draft Sill Assemblies. |
|---|---|
| Maximum Frame Length | Up to 30 Meters (Ideal for full locomotive underframes) |
| Materials Processed | High-Strength Low-Alloy (HSLA) Steel, Carbon Steel, Weathering Steel (Corten), and Aluminum Alloys. |
| Welding Standards | EN 15085 (Railway Welding), AWS D1.1, ISO 3834. |
| Quality & NDT Testing | 100% Magnetic Particle Inspection (MPI), Ultrasonic Testing (UT), and Large-Scale Laser Tracker CMM Integration. |
How We Build Railway Frames
Railcar underframes require massive steel channels and beams. We utilize high-definition plasma cutting and long-bed press brakes (capable of bending plates up to 15 meters long) to form continuous side sills and center beams without weak splice joints.
Because railway frames undergo intense vibration, flawless welding is mandatory. Our EN 15085 and AWS-certified welders utilize advanced Submerged Arc Welding (SAW) and robotic welding cells to lay down deep-penetration, defect-free seams.
To ensure the frame does not warp over decades of use, fully welded bogies and underframes are placed into our massive on-site heat treatment furnaces to relieve residual welding stresses prior to final machining.
Wheel alignment is critical. We place the entire welded and stress-relieved frame onto our 25-meter CNC gantry mills. This allows us to face mounting pads and bore axle/suspension mounts in a single setup, guaranteeing absolute geometric precision across the entire frame.