Post on 03-Mar-2023
1. ABSTRACT
ICF Bogie is a conventional railway bogie used on the majority of Indian
Railway main line passenger coaches. The design of the bogie was developed
by ICF (Integral Coach Factory), Perumbur, India in collaboration with the
Swiss Car & Elevator Manufacturing Co., Schlieren, Switzerland in the
1950s. The design is also called the Schlieren design based on the location of
the Swiss company
The dynamic behaviour of a railway bogie has been investigated by using a
mathematical model,a space state equation, for simulation with a computer.
The comparison of a damped with a undamped bogie demonstrated that the
driving stability at high speeds can be uprated after the installation of dampers
acting in driving direction and allaround the vertical rotation axis of the bogie
The maximum speed of the damped bogie has amounted to 76 m/s.
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2. INTRODUCTION
2.1 PROBLEM DEFINTION
Design office takes care of the changes in the availability of the new
materials, standardization, obsolescence, feed back reports from the user Railways
and recommendations by various standing committees and study groups on the
Indian Railways.
With the changing requirements of the Railways, the design office is
challenged to drastically cut down the design cycle time. The design office can
proudly take the credit of development of the following new designs in the past
three years.
Started in 1952, the Integral Coach Factory (ICF) is located in Perambur, a
suburb of Chennai, India. Its primary products are rail coaches. Most of the
coaches manufactured are supplied to the Indian Railways, but it has also
manufactured coaches for railway companies in other countries, including
Thailand, Burma, Taiwan, Zambia, Philippines, Tanzania, Uganda, Vietnam,
Nigeria, Mozambique and Bangladesh. Recently, ICF exported coaches to Angola.
It also has got orders worth of Rs. 102 crores from Sri Lanka.
The coach factory provides a number of different coaches primarily for the Indian
Railways, primarily first and second class coaches, pantry and kitchen cars,
luggage and brake vans, self propelled coaches, electric, diesel and mainline
electric multiple units (EMU, DMU, MEMU), metro coaches and Diesel Electric
Tower Cars (DETC), Accident Relief Medical Vans (ARMV).
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3. HISTORY
Schlieren-Zurich (Switzerland). The first Kirloskar 8½” centre lathe was
installed by the then Railway Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri in the machine shop on
20th Jan 1955. It was inaugurated by the then Prime Minister of India Pandit
Jawaharlal Nehru on 2nd October 1955. Thus this great factory, ICF, came into
being with K. Sadagopan, as the first Chief Administrative Officer. Dignitaries
present on this occasion included Lal Bahadur Shastri, Railway Minister;
O.V.Alagesan, Deputy Minister for Railways; K. Kamaraj, Chief Minister of
Madras Presidency and U.Huber, Director of the Swiss company for whom this
was a proud moment, a witness to the consummation of the efforts of his experts
working in collaboration with Indian engineers. Production began in a modest
manner in 1955 with the manufacture of seven third class coach shells. Today the
coach factory produces more than 1600 coaches of more than 170 varieties. In the
year 2007-08, ICF created a milestone by producing 1291 railway passenger
coaches, coaches per annum. It employs about 13,000 persons. Nearly 1336
coaches are manufactured every year, and 6 coaches are manufactured per day.
4. INAUGURATION
Integral Coach Factory, Chennai, is a premier Production Unit of Indian
Railways manufacturing railway passenger coaches. ICF is the first of its kind to
be established after Independence for the manufacture of light weight, all steel and
all welded Integral railway passenger coaches. The factory was set up in 1955
with Swiss collaboration.
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5. STRUCTURE OF THE ORGANIZATION
The Integral Coach Factory consists of two main parts - shell division and
the furnishing division. The shell division manufactures the skeleton of the rail
coach, while the furnishing division is concerned with the coach interiors and
amenities.
5.1 PRODUCTION
ICF’s initial plan was to produce 350 Broad Gauge Third Class shells
(unfurnished body of the Railway Coaches) only, which were to be furnished by
the Zonal Railways workshops. Later, in view of the severe limitation of capacity
of the Railway workshops and also to take advantage of mass production, a
separate Furnishing Division was added on 2nd October, 1962. The capacity was
progressively expanded from the initial 350 shells to 750 fully furnished coaches
per annum by 1973-74 with additional inputs. This was enhanced progressively
from 850 coaches during 1986-87 to 1000 coaches in 1990-91. The modernization
project is under last stage of execution to augment capacity to 1250 coaches and
will be over by 2010-11.
Capacity is further being enhanced to 1500 coaches per annum through
infrastructure additions and modernization of machines.
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5.2 DESIGN FEATURES
The design concept of the coach stipulates that the roof, side wall, end wall
and the underframe are joined together by welding, to form a fully integral coach
shell. The end-wall construction has been made specially strong to make it anti-
telescopic to ensure maximum safety to passengers. Further, crashworthy features
are provided with CBC design to minimize impact on passengers during
accidents/derailments.
From the basic design handed down by the collaborators, ICF has diversified
having established its expertise and skill in this field, to design and manufacture
more than 350 different types of coaches for Indian Railways and export market.
Every time a new type of coach is launched, emphasis is laid on improving
passenger comfort, passenger safety and higher speeds. ICF follows standard
inspection procedures to ensure quality from raw material stage to the finished
coach.
5.3 PRODUCT RANGE
ICF has been meeting the needs of the Indian Railways for varied types of
coaches, however sophisticated the type may be. Some of the important types are:
5.3.1 SELF PROPELLED COACHES
Electric Multiple Units for suburban services in Metropolitan cities;
Diesel Rail Cars;
Metro Coaches for Kolkata Metro Railways;
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Diesel Electric Multiple Units & Diesel Hydraulic Multiple Units for
non-electrified routes and Mainline Electric Multiple Units for long distance
inter-city commutership.
Accident Relief Trains / Medical Vans
OHE Inspection Cars
5.3.2AIR-CONDITIONED & NON-AIRCONDITIONED PASSENGER
COACHES
Air-conditioned Sleeper Coaches of first & second class;
Air-conditioned Chair Cars of first and second class;
Double Decker Coaches with seating capacity for 148 passengers as
against the conventional 90 passengers.
5.3.3 SPECIAL COACHES
Air-conditioned & Non-air-conditioned Pantry Cars
High Capacity Power Cars for Shatabdi & Rajdhani Express Trains
Air-conditioned Military Ward and Saloon Cars for Indian Army.
Air-conditioned Saloon Cars, Dining Cars, Bar & Restaurant Cars,
luxury suites for luxury tourist trains like Palace on Wheels (WR), Deccan
Odyssey (CR), The Golden Chariot (SWR), Royal Rajasthan on Wheels
(NWR) and Maharajas� Express of IRCTC
Lifeline Express for operation of hospital on wheels
Jet Deflector Crane Cars,
Inter Communication Coaches for DRDO
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5.3.4 EXPORT
ICF’s achievement on the export front has been enviable since its
inception. Against stiff international competition from more advanced countries
like Japan, etc., ICF secured several export orders, most of which are repeat orders.
So far, 359 bogies, 11 stainless steel coach shells and 481 coaches including air-
conditioned coaches have been exported to 13 Afro-Asian countries. ICF has
bagged a number of awards for Export Excellence also.
5.4 DESIGN & DEVLOPMENT EFFORTS
Complementing the existing design capacities and facilities, a fully
computerised Design & Development Cell has been set up with sophisticated state-
of-the-art computer designing facilities and testing equipment both for coach
components and raw materials. D&D Centre uses 3-D modelling on SolidWorks
platform for generating 3-D drawings and IDEAS software for Finite Element
Analysis.
Strain gauge testing and squeeze test are done on prototypes before
commencement of series production.
5.5 PRODUCTION WITH INNOVATION
ICF has carved a niche in the Indian Railway system by constantly
improving the quality of travel through its passenger coach design which has
undergone a sea- change from the days of bye-gone era of mere transport of
passengers. There has been a steady growth both in the quality and quantity of its
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production. Over the years ICF has endeavoured to meet passengers expectations
through innovations like
Cushioned seats in General Second Class and SLR coaches
Provision of Controlled Discharge Toilet Systems
Anti-injury features in the passenger areas of A/C 2-tier and Sleeper
coaches
Enhanced carrying capacity in A/C 2-tier, First A/C and Garib Rath
Chair Car
Provision of forced ventilation, PIS/PAS in AC/DC EMUs for WR
and CR
UIC vestibules in mainline coaches
Disabled friendly features in SLRD/SRD coaches
Modular toilets in passenger coaches
Provision of laptop and cell phone charging points in passenger
coaches
Use of stainless steel in Pantry Cars including interiors and the
equipment
As milestones in this endless travel, ICF has obtained the ISO: 9001, ISO: 14001
and ISO: 18001 certificates for the QMS, EMS and OHSAS systems respectively.
All this has been made possible through ICF’s commitment to progress and
improvement with its dedicated workforce functioning in a contented atmosphere
in pleasant surroundings and working conditions. Several welfare schemes like
staff quarters, adequate clean water supply, improved medical facilities, online
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information kiosks, issue of pass centrally, encouragement in sports activities, etc.,
are provided.
PRODUCTION WITH INNOVATION is our motto and we will continue to live
up to it.
6 MILESTONES
1 First Third Class Shell production 2nd October 1955
2 First Indigenous Shell produced 14th August 1956
3 First Full production capacity achieved 1958-59
4 First Incentive system of payment introduced January 1960
5 First MG First Class Coach 1960-61
6 First 1000th Shell, fully furnished and produced 1962-63
7 First Fully furnished third class sleeper coach October 1961
8 First AC EMU A produced September 1962
9 First MG Diesel Rail Car 1964-65
10 First MG EMU Motor coach 1965-66
11 First AC Express 1966-67
12 First Rajdhani Express November 1968
13 First Power Car (WLRRM) November 1968
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14 First DC EMU Motor coach 1969-70
15 First AC Composite Coach (FACCW) 1972-73
16 First BG AC 2 tier Sleeper December 1974
17 First AC Power Car (WLRRM AC) 1975-76
18 First Second Class Day Coach (SDC) 1975-76
19 First DC EMU high capacity Motor coach January 1976
20 First BG Double Decker Coach 1976-77
21 First Manufacture of Vaigai Express 15th August 1977
22 First 23 Metre (70 feet) SCN Coach 1978-79
23 First Military Ward cum Dining Car 1978-79
24 First MG Milk van Bogie 4th July 1979
25 First MG ACCW coach 1981-82
26 First Metro Coach for Calcutta Sub-urban 1981-82
27 First Taj Express 1987-88
28 First Shatabdi Express 1989-90
29 First MG Palace on Wheels,20 Coaches, 5 types July 1991
30 First Conventional Coach with Air Brake November 1993
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