J. LANFRANCO & Cie
Supporting the Track
This article first appeared in the Railway-News magazine, Issue 1 2023.
Our presence on the international markets is constantly growing, and the track is a very important area of application as it combines two distinct sectors, freight and passenger lines.
Europe has been our latest zone to re-engage with freight and it also has a more limited network, but it’s another significant area of expertise.
As a result, we have seen our subsidiaries developing many applications in Brazil, Chile, Canada and the USA.
Europe
The European railway market is better known for its passenger train and equipment manufacturers than for freight and applications development. We also followed the trend, and this now represents a significant part of our market. J. LANFRANCO & Cie has found its customers, especially for our ESL and ERM locknuts. In recent years, the track, which was often considered as the poor relation of the railway sector, has also received new interest.
Brazil
This is a constantly evolving market, benefiting from the development of the mining sector, transport of construction materials, as well as agricultural and food products. Since 2019, there have been 29 concessions and three early renewals. (The purpose of these rail concessions is to manage and operate the existing railway lines, extensions, improvements, and maintenance in the form of private participation contracts for predetermined periods of about 30 years that belong to the state.)
The aim is to rebalance Brazil’s transport core and to double the railway infrastructure. Mining companies often operate the rail network to better control it, as do other major players in the Brazilian industry.
With our Brazilian subsidiary, we have therefore developed our applications for the track: switches, joint bar, frogs, electrical connections and signalling, considering the environment and the assembly conditions.
We adapt to the needs of our customers to ensure their fastener system. For assemblies without critical electrical connections, there are two possibilities: ESL or THU. The most difficult environments with the least amount of maintenance and tools available (only an impact wrench) can rely on the THU.
