EQUIPMENT made in Swindon and supplied to the rail industry will be completed at an even faster time thanks to a new test centre.

TE Connectivity has just unveiled its new rail high voltage (HV) test facility.

The major enhancement means the company in Dorcan can carry out electrical and mechanical tests on HV rail products ahead of the products being developed.

This will be carried out by fitting equipment to the roof of electric trains to make the electrical connection between the overhead wires and the transformers that drive the train.

Testing was previously carried out externally and by bringing the tests in-house it enables TE to speed up the development of new products as it can tweak and change things on site quicker, bringing a boost to the company and the industry. It will reduce the time items are brought to market by 30 per cent.

“The majority of TE’s rolling stock products are tailored to suit specific customer requirements and specifications, so testing is a critical aspect of the design and development process,” said Al Ghelani, general manager of the rail division of TE's industrial business unit.

“Plus, we need to verify that products meet the exacting requirements of international and national standards.

“Previously, most of this testing was carried out at external facilities, which was costly, time-consuming and inefficient.

"Our new test centre provides all the capabilities we need in-house, with the key benefit that we can reduce the time to market by around 30 per cent as well as provide a faster response to customer needs.”

TE is developing high voltage products for electrified railways around the world. Its site in Faraday Road is its world centre for the rail industry and the firm also manufactures products such as wire and cable and cable identification products for other industries.

A key driver for the creation of the new rail HV test centre is to reduce the time to market for new products.

There can be long delays in arranging testing at external facilities, and since it is essentially a pass or fail process, it is not possible to use these tests to improve designs.

However, TE’s facility now enables testing to be fully integrated within the iterative design and development exercise.

Mr Ghelani said: "The facility will enable TE to improve its designs for enhanced manufacturing processes, as well as establish a leadership position in the qualification of products under real-world rolling stock stresses that will feed into the development of new standards.

"It will also provide the capability for comparative benchmark testing against competitor products."