Complete Product Range and Complex Services

As the Europe’s largest specialist in development and manufacture of wheelsets, BONATRANS GROUP a.s. supplies railway companies and transport operators on five continents, as well as leading global rolling stock manufacturers, with a complete range of high-quality wheelsets – from high-speed and locomotive applications to optimized solutions for freight transport and low-floor systems for urban railways equipped with rubber-sprung resilient wheels and other technologies for effective noise reduction.

Our wheelsets are always tailored to the specific requirements of customers, their vehicles and technical standards. In the wheelset design, we take into account the design of bogies, brake systems and drives, as well as track parameters. Our solutions cover all gauge types, high loads and the most demanding operating conditions in passenger, freight and urban transport. Complete after-sales technical support and service throughout the wheelset lifecycle is a matter of course.

Our Innovations – Products with Extended Service Life and Low LLC

For many years, GHH-BONATRANS has been engaged in the development and production of innovative wheelsets, wheels and axles with an extended service life.

These products not only offer a reduced carbon footprint, but also significantly lower life cycle costs (LCC) for operators.

BONAXLE®

is an innovative induction hardened axle. It is our solution of requirements for increased safety and reliability and reduction of life cycle costs (LCC) and carbon footprint. GHH-BONATRANS further improved the technology already well established in Japan by adapting it to other steel grades, axle shapes and complete axle length.
This innovative technology improves strength of all axle types without the need to change their geometries and steel grades and protects the axle from damage along its entire length.

Where other axle protection technologies fail, BONAXLE® takes over.

BONAXLE® is already saving costs for operators in Europe and Asia.

BONASTAR®

is a series of enhanced steel grades for all types of locomotive, passenger-vehicle and freight-wagon wheels, and for rubber sprung resilient wheels for trams and metro cars.

They fully meet requirements of applicable standards, and in addition, compared to common steel grades, they also bring significant benefits for the user, such as up to 30% longer service life.

They also feature higher resistance to rolling contact fatigue (RCF) and suppression of wheel tread shelling.

BONASTAR® steel grades therefore ultimately reduce life cycle costs (LCC) as well as carbon footprint and enhance reliability and safety.

BONASILENCE®

is a family of highly efficient dynamic noise absorbing systems developed and continuously enhanced by GHH-BONATRANS. They are characterized by exceptional noise reduction – up to 8 dB(A) for rolling noise and up to 30dB(A) for squealing noise. Service life is not limited by the service life of the wheels. The possibility of reuse on a new wheel during wheelset maintenance reduces the carbon footprint as well as life cycle costs (LCC).

Customized solutions for individual combinations of wheel/rolling stock/noise reduction project to achieve maximum noise reduction for the complete system.

BONA830EM

The latest generation of stress optimised wheels for freight wagons. Modern wheel design with a high safety factor, optimised weight for efficient operation and low noise level, suitable for universal use as well as for extreme mechanical and thermal loading.

BONA830EM wheels, thanks to the 830 mm limit wear groove and the enhanced BONASTAR®ER7 steel grade (according to EN 13262), can achieve – or approach – a mileage of up to 1,200,000 km under favourable operating
conditions. This then makes it possible to combine wheel replacement with bearing replacement during the IS3 overhaul.

A version with a standard wear limit groove of 840 mm is also available.

Optimised wheel for freight wagons equipped with composite brake blocks (K, L, LL), for axle loads of 22.5 t and 25 t.

BONA313

Stress optimised wheel for freight wagons with lowest weight (313 kg) within the segment of wheels for axle load 25 t.

Higher service life thanks to the enhanced BONASTAR®ER7 steel grade according to EN 13262.

Optimised wheel for freight wagons equipped with composite brake blocks (K, L, LL), for axle loads of 22.5 t and 25 t.

BONAE-LOCK®

The proven boltless design of the BONAE-LOCK® rubber sprung resilient wheel, with its patented lock for easy tyre exchange and optimised medium stiffness, is especially suited for modern metro trainsets.

The wheels are standardly equipped with tyres from innovative BONASTAR® steel grades that achieve up to 30% higher mileage compared to common steel grades, thus reducing LCC.

Thanks to the unbeatably short tyre exchange time and the reduced number of spare part items required for the tyre replacement, maintenance costs are reduced even further.

We supply the BONAE-LOCK® wheels either with already mounted effective BONASILENCE® noise dampers or prepared from the manufacture for later additional mounting of dampers, should the transport agency or the city decide to further reduce noise.

BONACOAT®

is a range of premium coating systems with extended service life for protection of wheelsets (and their components) of high-speed trains as well as other rail vehicles for passengers and freight transport. It increases the wheelset resilience against mechanical damage, corrosion and cyclic stresses. BONACOAT® coatings significantly contribute to the reduction of the wheelset life cycle costs (LCC), carbon footprint and increases its operation safety.

BONACOAT® coatings meet also the requirements of applicable railway norms, as well as of the ERWA Guideline for Axle Coating, in which the European manufacturers of wheelsets and their components have accumulated their know-how acquired from dozens of years of direct cooperation with the operators, manufacturers and repair facilities of rail vehicles. The scope and structure of these requirements originated in ERWA (The European Railway Wheels Association, part of UNIFE) committees between 2016 and 2021, with the aim to improve protection of axles and increase reliability and competitiveness of the railway transport.

Key BONATRANS GROUP a.s. Products

• wheelsets
• powered wheelsets
• non-powered wheelsets
• wheels
• stress optimised wheels
• high-speed wheels
• very high-speed wheels
• rubber-sprung resilient wheels
• Ro-La wheels
• auxiliary wheels for metro
• axles
• hollow axles
• induction hardened axles
• axles with thermally sprayed molybdenum layer on axle seats
• axles with cold rolling
• axles with thick-layer coating system
• resilient wheels
• BONAXLE induction hardened axles
• BONASTAR improoved steel grades family for wheels
• BONA313 stress optimised wheel with low weight
• BONA830EM stress optimised wheel with increased service life
• BONA318 stress optimised wheel
• BONA319 stress optimised wheel
• BONASILENCE noise absorber family
• BONAE-LOCK rubber-sprung resilient wheels
• BONACOAT protective coatings for wheelsets
• BONAESFA freight axles