Pfaff Verkehrstechnik GmbH
Columbus McKinnon Engineered Products Manufactures Lifting System for the First Time via Local Partners under the ‘Make in India’ Initiative
This article first appeared in the Railway-News Magazine Issue 3 2023.
Pfaff Verkehrstechnik, which now trades as Columbus McKinnon Engineered Products, has delivered an underfloor lifting system to the Indian customer HYT Engineering Company, which, for the first time, has been manufactured locally under the ‘Make in India’ initiative, i.e. where the Indian manufacturing contribution is more than 50%.
For the first time, the factory acceptance test of an underfloor lifting system including load tests was carried out on site in India in June 2023 and was approved at the first attempt in Ahmedabad without any flaws. To meet the requirements of the initiative and factory acceptance, Pfaff Verkehrstechnik cooperates with local manufacturing partners, such as Stahl India, part of Columbus McKinnon, and Techno Industries, a leading Indian manufacturer of cranes, lifts and escalators.
First Factory Acceptance Test on Site in India
In previous and already completed projects with underfloor lifting systems, the acceptance tests were still carried out in Europe, for example in 2002 for the Delhi Metro at the Shastri Park Depot, which is still in operation there after more than 20 years. Pfaff was also the supplier of India’s first six-carriage lifting system, built in 2013 to connect New Delhi Airport. This was followed by an eight-carriage system in 2021, which was commissioned at the Badli depot in New Delhi. Other currently completed projects include lifting systems for the Pune Metro and the Kanpur Metro.
The pre-assembled system, which was accepted in Ahmedabad, is currently on its way to HYT Engineering, where it will be prepared for final assembly at the Shakurbasti depot near New Delhi. From the end of 2023, it will be used there for the maintenance and servicing of eight-carriage Vande Bharat trains. The end user of the lifting system is the state-owned railway company Indian Railways. It operates most of the nationwide rail transport.
