Hamilton Stamping delivers a wide array of parts and satisfies Wabco’s lean manufacturing requirements

Wabtec is one of North America's largest, most comprehensive suppliers of products, services and systems for the global rail industry. Through its subsidiaries, the company manufactures a broad range of components for locomotives and freight cars, including state-of-the-art electronic train-control systems. Wabtec also builds new environmentally friendly, low-horsepower locomotives and provides after-market services, such as locomotive overhaul and re-manufacturing for locomotive and freight car fleet maintenance. Wabco (formerly the Westinghouse Air Brake Company) is a division of Wabtec, which focuses on the manufacturing of air brake systems for railway cars.

Wabco had been working unsuccessfully with one of their suppliers to remedy a problem with a slide valve spring, a stamped metal part that is an integral part of the triple valve component of their brake system. They were dealing with very tiny loads and very exact insertion pressures in a part, that was critical in optimally controlling the braking time of a train, which is critical to safe operations. Wabco had a problem with parts that were being delivered out of specification and suggested that the tooling was defective.

Wabco then approached Hamilton Stamping. We took their specification and built tooling and production parts exactly to their specification. We worked closely with Wabco Engineers to ensure these new parts worked properly in their existing valve components. Through this collaboration, we came up with slight design modifications to achieve the best possible functionality.

Approximately 30,000 of these parts are being produced annually from ¾ hard 301 stainless steel. We have further evolved our production processes so that we are working under blanket orders from Wabco and shipping parts on demand.

In addition to producing these springs for Wabco, the array of parts we produce for them includes stops, handles, shims, washers, and other springs.