Senior Industry Personnel: Thomas Bodenburg

After having finished my secondary school certificate in 1991, my father asked me one evening if I would like to focus on a mechanical or an electrical apprenticeship. Because I had always preferred to have a hammer and a screwdriver in the hand than wire and pliers, I made my way into Robert Bosch GmbH to complete an apprenticeship as an industrial mechanic of production engineering.

Coming from the Automotive…

After a few years of working as a skilled mechanic with various machines, I realised that this could not be ‘the end of the road’. So I furthered my education at the Werner-von-Siemens-School and I graduated as a machine construction engineer after two years. As a young and motivated engineer I then continued working at Bosch, but after a few months I was still not totally satisfied and decided to study more. For the next three years, and in parallel to my job, I made a distance study in technical business administration (CCI) at the DAG-Technikum-School. After that I spent a year in the design department of Ferchau Engineering GmbH. Here I constructed in close collaboration with the client Wabco Systeme GmbH project-related components for vehicle brakes. After good experiences in this area I wanted to have more responsibilities and decided to make a change. I ended up working during the following four years in the production planning of an American company, Cameron Controls GmbH. As a production planner I was responsible for the material planning of various projects. I also had to control the scheduling of orders, and assisted the customer in the final inspection and quality control of the products. Furthermore, I was involved in the material management and worked on projects to reduce storage costs and improve requirement optimisation.

…to the Railway Industry…

Looking for a senior position in project management, I joined Siemens AG as a strategic production planner. Having worked here for four years I gained experience abroad through my work in the localisation of axle counting systems and relays in India. In the processing of numerous domestic and external projects with the Indian national companies, my interest in commercial activities in the sales department intensified. Dealing with customers as well as independent and responsible work was an indispensable part of my professional life. So in order to fulfil my new commercial interest, I started a distance study at the Private University of Applied Sciences in Göttingen, where after three years I completed a Master in Business Administration. The study focused on international marketing and sales, as well as project-, process- and quality management.

…to Voith Turbo Scharfenberg

For about two years I have been responsible as a Key Account Manager at Voith Turbo Scharfenberg ‘Schaku’ for individual key accounts like Bombardier Transportation and also for the regions of Russia, Eastern Europe and Turkey.

It is a long time since ‘Schaku’ had been associated with couplers only. Today, as a system supplier for front end solutions, we provide train manufacturers all over the world with impact protection systems, side-buffers, front hatches and energy absorbing components, up to complete front noses including control electronics.

Collision safe fibre composite vehicle head

Increased safety at lower weight is the collision safe vehicle head, manufactured mainly from fibre composite materials, integrating energy absorbing features within its structure. Combined with further energy absorbing elements of coupler and train, this provides an efficient protection of both passengers and vehicle while saving weight.

Further members of the energy absorption family

One-stop shopping for all energy absorbing components of the train front end – perfectly harmonised components and a holistic safety concept was what ‘Schaku’ had in mind when developing their crash boxes, crash buffers and crash elements. A number of tests and simulations were performed until the suitable material was found and reproducible crash characteristics were attained. Now solutions can be offered for several conditions and requirements.

CRP adapter

Adapter couplers are only needed for towing or shunting trains, so they need to be fitted on track manually by the operating staff. Thus, an ideal adapter would be one that is light-weight and yet able to bear the heavy load of a whole train. For common steel couplers used to date, the possibilities for weight reduction are virtually exhausted. Here, the coupler body mainly consists of carbon fibre reinforced plastics, a high-tech material often to be found in aviation technology. The new material performed strongly in tests, so that – after some refining and optimising – all lights are green for the lightweight adapter coupler.

All these components are developed to increase security, to make people safer while travelling, reduce costs and support environmental protection. All reasons which motivate me every day to passionately do my work.