Initial situation

A firm from the railway industry proposed us a challenge to improve platforms that are used in the train stations for the assistance to people with reduced mobility. The project proposed several premises that were of upmost importance for the completion of it:

• The mobility platforms would operate in the train station platforms, and thus in uneven flooring, especially in the areas near the trains.

• The castors needed to have breaks for the security of the platform, besides this feature, the breaks had also to be easily accessible for the personnel using them.

• The old wheels that the railway company was using before, had little manoeuvrability requiring a higher effort of the personnel using them to move them alongside.

• The castors that the railway company was using before, had a short durability and high wear and tear, which meant high costs and maintenance.

To satisfy the multiple requirements of the client and solve the problems that they had, two main objectives had to be addressed:

1. Increase the productivity by improving the manoeuvrability of the platform.

2. Increase the security, so much for the personnel using the platform as well as for the users with reduced mobility that use the platform.

The solution that our technicians arrived to, was to develop a castor that would be able to cope with the high and continuous use that would receive and increase the durability of the wheels and castors of the platform.

The final solution presented was a new version of our wheel of the HLS series, whereby, modifying the suspension characteristics our technicians where able to achieve the maximum range of flexion indicated by the client(for both when the platform is empty or with weight). By doing so the desirable suspension for the security of the platform was achieved.

Another important issue that needed to be solved was the accessibility of the personnel using the platform to the breaks while fulfilling the labour risk prevention law. The solution proposed was the addition of external metal bars so that the personnel using the platform could be holding the platform at all times while using the breaks. This solution had great acceptance.

Finally, to achieve that the platform could be manoeuvred with less effort, we added our AUAB series wheels, with its beaded characteristic achieving less contact of the tread of the wheel with the ground and consequently reducing the effort needed to operate the platform.

The result has been a wheel and castor tailor-made that fulfills all the necessities of the client in a very satisfactory way.