Railway Track & Structures - June 2008 - (Page 48)

Fasteners enable us to successfully participate in the supply of DF.” L.B. Foster Company “Developing and supplying custom engineered, innovative fasteners for commuter rail and transit customers is the focus at L.B. Foster Company. Recent company efforts have targeted new products and faster development cycles,” indicated Hakan Eksi, general manager, transit products. “Utilizing in-house finite-element analysis, rapid prototyping capabilities and our dedicated mechanical laboratory located in Suwanee, Ga., we are able to develop innovative products concurrently rather than being burdened with lengthy, iterative processes. In the past, we relied solely on prototyping to refine the mechanical properties of our fasteners. As a result of the concurrent utilization of our analysis and testing capabilities, we have significantly reduced development times." According to Korhan Ciloglu, research and development manager, “Investigation of different design concepts and materials is the core of our R&D efforts in Transit Products. We are simultaneously developing several different fasteners for noise and vibration mitigation in urban rail systems with the help of our in-house design and testing capabilities. Our goal is to incorporate the different needs of the industry in our new products. We are not only capable of running all fastener qualification tests specified by our customers in our laboratory, but we also look beyond customer specifications for simulation of different loading conditions on new designs and materials.” L.B. Foster Company is a supplier of fastening systems throughout North America and also provides systems globally. The company has served customers in these market segments for more than 30 years. “Key product benefits that the company offers with its hot vulcanizebonded track fastening systems include noise and vibration reduction, electrical isolation against stray currents, ease of installation, better train ride quality and extended track life,” Eksi said. The company also provides other products to heavy and light transit and commuter rail markets such as special trackwork, direct-fixation fasteners, contact rail systems, elastomeric rail boot systems, two-block concrete tie systems and other ancillary products. According to Eksi, the company’s broad product mix gives customers the ability to purchase multiple products from one vendor, simplifying the procurement process and saving customers time and money. Commenting on current conditions within the transit industry, Eksi said, “Transit agencies are seeing record ridership levels as fuel prices continue to soar. Additional agency revenues generated and SAFETEA-LU-provided funds are being used to expand passenger rail capacity. With a number of projects in various stages in the pipeline, we see a bright future.” Lewis Bolt “We had a record year of sales in 2007 and started out the new year on a 48 Railway Track & Structures June 2008 www.rtands.com http://www.rtands.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Railway Track & Structures - June 2008

Railway Track & Structures - June 2008 Contents On Track Industry Today Supplier News AREMA News NRC News TTCI R&D Grade Crossings Provide Interface Between Railroads, Public Grade-Crossing Equipment & Materials Guide Fastener Suppliers Getting a Grip Grinding Plays Part in Rail Maintenance Big Picture Products and Literature People Calendar Sales Representatives Website Directory Advertisers Index Professional Directory Classified Advertising Chicago Perspective

Railway Track & Structures - June 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.