Naledi Ringrollers awarded IRIS ISO/TS 22163:2017 certification

Extra forging and machining capacity allows company to expand and seek more opportunities for the manufacture of seamless forged and rolled products.

Shortly before lockdown Naledi Ringrollers was awarded the IRIS ISO/TS 22163 certification. The certification fully adopts the structure of the ISO 9001:2015 quality management standard and has been extended to include requirements specifically for the railway industry. The expanded standard applies to all companies in the rail vehicle industry, including suppliers of infrastructure technology.

DQS South Africa was the management systems company that audited Naledi Ringrollers for the IRIS (International Railway Industry Standard) certification. This certification cements Naledi Ringrollers as a quality player in a global arena, and a proudly South African company with internationally accepted quality processes.

Naledi Ringrollers manufactures railway tyres to international and custom specifications suitable for applications such as tram, metro, mainline, locomotives, rail refurbishment vehicles, industrial and mining. The company is also now able to offer solid wheels for the railway industry

Rail is a main focus, where Naledi Ringrollers supplies to mainline railway, metro railway, metro trains and tramways globally

CapabilitiesNaledi Ringrollers is one of the largest forging companies in the Southern hemisphere, with the most powerful and technologically advanced manufacturing facility on the African continent. Naledi Ringrollers focusses on the manufacturing of railway tyres, wheels and wheelsets, seamless rings, forgings and flanges, with an input weight of up to five tons and a diameter of up to size 4 500mm.

More than half of the manufactured products are exported globally to more than 43 countries across all continents with the balance consumed in the local railway and industrial markets.

Naledi Ringrollers is internationally renowned as a global leader in the manufacture of seamless forged and rolled products for the rail, petrochemical, civil engineering, power generation and medium to heavy engineering industries

HistoryNaledi Ringrollers was originally located in Selection Park, Springs, 50km east of Johannesburg, Gauteng before relocating in 2012 to Vereeniging, 60km south of Johannesburg.

Established in 1972 as Ringrollers, the company was purchased by the Metkor Group in 1976. Dorbyl Heavy Engineering (Pty) Ltd purchased the company in 1992 and it was subsequently was absorbed into Dorbyl Ltd in 1995. In December 2002 the company was subject to a management buy-out, which resulted in a name change to DCD-DORBYL (Pty) Ltd. The company was purchased by Investec in 2008 without any name changes and in 2012 the company became a wholly-owned subsidiary of DCD Group (Pty) Ltd.

The company was purchased by the Naledi Inhlanganiso Group in June 2018 and the name of the company was changed to Naledi Ringrollers.

In the forge there is a 3 500 ton, a 1 000 ton, a 750 ton and a 630 ton press, all of them capable of both open and semi closed die forging, that can produce forgings to customer specifications

In the semi-automated heat treatment plant the company has 12 furnaces capable of austenising, normalising, tempering, annealing, polymer quenching, stress relieving and solution annealing

Capacity and equipmentThe company has an under-roof manufacturing area of 14 140m², employs 149 staff and has an annual capacity of 30 000 tons and can manufacture up to 75 000 components in a year.

In the forge there is a 3 500 ton, a 1 000 ton, a 750 ton and a 630 ton press, all of them capable of both open and semi closed die forging, that can produce forgings to customer specifications suitable for applications such as wind energy industries, harbour dredging operators, turbines, pressure vessels, petrochemical, mining and civil engineering industries. Flanges are manufactured from 254mm upwards to an outside diameter of up to 4 500mm in various material grades such as high carbon, alloy steel, stainless steel and tool steels to international specifications. Flange types include weldneck flanges, slip-on flanges, tube sheets, blanks covers and anchor flanges.

Forging capability from 200mm to 1 300mm outside diameter, approximately five tons input weight to a height of 900mm maximum in various material grades such as high carbon, alloy steel, stainless steel and tool steel. Forging products include gears, pinions, crane wheels, couplers, drive gears, dolley wheels and kiln rollers.

Seamless ringsNaledi Ringrollers forge seamless rings to custom specifications suitable for applications such as riding rings and slew bearings for industries such as renewable energy, civil engineering, mining and industrial. Seamless rings can be profile-rolled if required with an outside diameter from 200mm to 4 500mm, with approximately five tons of input weight with a height from 35mm to 580mm.

Railway tyres – forged and solidNaledi Ringrollers manufactures railway tyres to international and custom specifications suitable for applications such as tram, metro, mainline, locomotives, rail refurbishment vehicles, industrial and mining.

The company is also now able to offer solid wheels for the railway industry.

Heat treatmentIn the semi-automated heat treatment plant the company has 12 furnaces capable of austenising, normalising, tempering, annealing, polymer quenching, stress relieving and solution annealing.

Automated hardness and ultrasonic testing machines make up the inspection equipment.

Machining capabilities include 17 CNC vertical borers, five manual vertical borers with capabilities of machining components up to 4 500mm outside diameter. The brand of YouJi is prominent amongst these vertical borers. More recently Machine Tool Promotions has upgraded and automated the bridge elevator systems on two of the vertical borers and also installed a modernised Hegenscheidt vertical borer

New target markets: Naledi Ringrollers is very well-known for its manufacture of railway forged tyres, exporting about 50% of its manufactured products to more than 43 countries. These can be found on locomotives, trams, metro carriages and freight trains. The company has been broadening its scope of work and clients in recent years with the manufacture and export of flanges, rings, gears and other general engineering components

MachiningMachining capabilities include 17 CNC vertical borers, five manual vertical borers with capabilities of machining components up to 4 500mm outside diameter. The brand of YouJi is prominent amongst these vertical borers. More recently Machine Tool Promotions has upgraded and automated the bridge elevator systems on two of the vertical borers and also installed a modernised Hegenscheidt vertical borer.

CNC machining center – NewayRecently the company invested in its first machining center, a Neway VM1103S. The CNC vertical machining center has XYZ travels of 1 000mm by 520mm by 560mm and a table load of 750kg. Machining capabilities also include milling, drilling and tapping of components.

New target marketsNaledi Ringrollers is very well-known for its manufacture of railway forged tyres, exporting about 50% of its manufactured products to more than 43 countries. These can be found on locomotives, trams, metro carriages and freight trains.

The company has been broadening its scope of work and clients in recent years with the manufacture and export of flanges, rings, gears and other general engineering components.

"We have the expertise and capabilities to expand into other general engineering markets with our only limitation being the current equipment sizes. We have been diversifying our business into a range of other areas in order to serve the global market. Gears, pinions and any other forgings in the mining, water and sanitation, food processing, agriculture, civil and general engineering, for example are areas that we are looking at."

For further details contact Naledi Ringrollers on TEL: 016 428 7600 or visit www.ni-ringrollers.co.za