Together with its Indian partner, Resistoflex Dynamics (Pvt.) Ltd., Noida, ContiTech, the world’s market leader in primary and secondary suspension components for rail vehicles, supports the Indian rail industry with innovative suspension concepts.

ContiTech has agreed upon a major project with Indian Railways, India’s state-owned railway company. Starting immediately, the rubber experts are supplying the air suspension system for the cars of the new generation of main-line trains. “We are the first OE supplier for this pioneering project. Our air springs have already passed the dynamic on-track testing. Each year, we hope to provide air suspension systems for more than 2,200 cars, which is about 2/3 of the total Indian market,” explains Andreas Hass, sales and marketing CRE at ContiTech Air Spring Systems.

ContiTech has already been the OE supplier for Indian Railways’ passenger train cars since 1997. The systems are provided to various manufacturers including Integral Coach Factory (ICF) and Rail Coach Factory (RCF). “In partnership with Resistoflex, the market leader in India, we are advantageously positioned in the country and can reliably fill such orders,” reports Friedrich Hoppmann, head of the ContiTech Railway Engineering segment.

This year, ContiTech has announced that it will be providing the original air springs for the bogeys developed for Indian Railways by Alstom LHB in Salzgitter, Germany. These relatively flexible bogeys are to replace the current bogeys. Starting next year, we will be able to equip cars with our technology,” says Hass.

ContiTech is a leading technology supplier in the suburban field as well. Since last year, the company has, through Resistoflex, supplied significant numbers of air suspension systems for the modernization of the suburban trains in Mumbai, the city with the highest urban-transit passenger density anywhere in the world. In an initial conversion phase, these air spring systems are being installed in all new coaches, and in a second phase, ContiTech will equip the existing vehicles.