Rail transport
UK & international
Established in 1987 in Newton Aycliffe, Co. Durham, Sabre Rail is now the UK’s leading independent rail component overhaul specialist, with unmatched experience in mainline, high speed, freight, metro and light rail services.
Our engineering client quickly completes component overhaul programmes through pioneering systems and processes, operating both within the UK and internationally for owners, operators and rail maintenance organisations from a purpose-built technical centre with a “zero defect rate” approach. OF Bell supports Sabre Rail’s production line, delivering cost-effective, reliable and UK-manufactured moulded plastic components that achieve excellent value for money and reduce lead times, keeping rail moving.
Seeking likeminded engineering skills locally, Sabre Rail reshored production of its moulded plastic component to Co. Durham-based OF Bell having struggled with the reliability, expense and lead times of its product supply from abroad.
OF Bell met with Sabre Rail’s engineering and production team during our initial Product Design and Development phase to review this specific moulded plastic component used as part of a train’s hydraulic braking system, creating a durable design to withstand heavy-duty applications which can be produced efficiently through injection moulding.
OF Bell’s team, led by our moulded plastics engineering and injection moulding specialists, worked with Sabre Rail to understand how its moulded plastic component is used in the field to allow for height adjustments within the braking system. Product designs needed to be robust, integrate seamlessly with the rest of the system, and capable of bulk production to achieve the client’s goal of reduced lead times and supply costs.
Moulded plastics and injection moulding engineers at OF Bell created a prototype component using a specific plastics compound containing an element of chalk core, allowing for better wearing properties and more effective, reduced-friction mechanical use.
OF Bell’s in-house tooling workshop created our injection moulding tools from scratch according to our team’s product designs. Working together, we tested the product, our bespoke tool and the proposed plastics compound to deliver on our client’s specification.
Each component is produced using a shot weight of 51.4g on our 60T injection moulding machine, equipped with a side core tool to produce the threads in each moulded plastic part. The chalk core contained in the plastic compound allows for a seamless removal of the component from the tool, delivering around 2000 components per annum to Sabre Rail.
OF Bell’s injection moulding and complex moulded plastics team in Bishop Auckland, Co. Durham, offers a reliable, consistent and quality-assured supply of our client’s component from an onshore moulded plastics manufacturing specialist.
Sabre Rail now benefits from much-reduced lead times, down from 14 weeks to just 2-3 weeks, together with lower production costs, lower minimum order quantities, no expensive shipping or storage costs, and a moulded plastic component that’s Made in Britain, delivering excellent performance.