WARRANTY INSPECTION OF NEWLY BUILT WAGONS

a) All newly built wagons have a warranty period of 24 months or as prescribed in the purchase contract. In accordance with the conditions mentioned in the wagon manufacturing contracts, the charges for rectification of the following category of defects can be realised from the wagon builder :-

 Use of inferior material

 Poor workmanship on the part of contractor

 Imperfect protection

 Other faults on the part of contractor which are noticed during the warrantyperiod.

b) To enable the Railway Board to realise the warranty charges, a systematic inspection of new wagons must be undertaken by representative of C&W to locate defects during the warranty period. The following procedure is laid down for this purpose:-

   (i) All newly built wagons turned out must bear the warranty legend stenciled on both sides of the wagons. The warranty legend will consist of the following particulars:-

 Contract Number

 Date of Commissioning

 Commissioned by

 Inspection due on

 Inspection done by ______ Depot_______ Date_______

 (ii) Whenever wagons due for warranty inspection pass nominated yards, preferably detach them from the train and send to sick line for a systematic check.

  (iii) Examination of Defects:

During the course of warranty inspection, it must be borne in mind that only those defects, which are attributable to the manufacturer due to use of inferior material, poor workmanship, improper protection or any other faults, are to be reported. The following are some of the defects, which fall under this category:-

A) Welding defects

 All types of welding failures

 Welding defects such as insufficient or unequal leg length of fillet weld, porosity, lack of fusion, etc.

B) Riveting/ Lock Bolting defects

 Loose rivets/ Lock bolts

 Badly formed rivet heads/ Lock bolt’s collars

 Rivets with staggered heads

 Improperly filled holes

 Pin tail of lock bolt not removed.

C) Manufacturing /Fitting Defects

 Improper manufacturing/ fitting of parts

D) Material failures such as breakage of:

 CBC components

 Centre pivots

 DV/ brake cylinder

 EM pads/ PU side bearers

E) Improper Protection

 Improper painting of underframe body, roof and components resulting in corrosion

 Wagons not being water tight

F) Train Pipe leakage and unsatisfactory working of brake cylinders

G) Roller Bearing Defects

Wagons fitted with roller bearings are normally examined only in major sick lines. If any defect is noticed, the entire wheel assembly must be sent to the workshop. After inspection in the workshop, if it is felt that the defect is attributable to the contractor/ manufacturer, the workshop in charge should report the defect to the concerned roller bearing manufacturer and others concerned. Since the Railways normally supply wheels and axles to the builder, defects noticed on the wheel and axles need not be reported to the wagon builders. However, the extant instructions for reporting any defect on the wheels and axles must be followed.

The procedure of warranty inspection of BTPN wagons is same as above with special attention to internal and external examination of barrel for any failure of longitudinal/ circumferential joint, lamination defects in barrel and dish end plates, cracks in barrel, leakage by barrel fittings and examination of cradles and anchoring rivets as per Technical pamphlet No. G-90.

c) METHOD OF REPORTING

A. The particulars, which are to be furnished, are as follows:-

i. Contract No.

This indicates the contract number under which the order has been placed by the Railway Board on the Wagon Builders for the manufacturer of wagons. This will be stenciled on the wagon in the Warranty legend. The representative of C&W should ensure that correct particulars as obtained from the wagon are filled.

ii. Wagon number

iii. Wagon Code

iv. Owning Railway

v. Month and Year of manufacture

vi. Name of the Manufacturer

vii. Date of Warranty Inspection

viii. Defects attributable to the Manufacturer - All the defects attributable to the manufacturer should be clearly indicated. The actual location of the defect should be clearly recorded.

In the case of material failure, it is essential that such items should be sent to the Chemist and Metallurgist of the respective Railways so as to enable him to submit the test reports. While sending the materials to the CMT, the particulars of the wagon i.e. the wagon No., owning Railway, Wagon code the Builders’ name, the Contract Number and the serial number of the Warranty Inspection Report must be mentioned in the forwarding memo. These particulars can be included in the Test Report submitted by the CMT. This will facilitate in connecting the test reports with the respective Warranty reports at the Railway Board’s Office.

The CMT will send his analysis report direct to the Railway Board’s office. In order to prefer the claims expeditiously as possible, it is desired by the Board that the reports of Chemist and Metallurgist should be sent to the Secretary (WP), Warranty, Railway Board, New Delhi, within 20 days from the date of warranty inspection. The report of the CMT should not be sent to the wagon Builders.

A ‘NIL’ defect report should be sent if there are no defects attributable to the manufacturers.

B. Estimated cost of rectification

No estimates are to be furnished by representative of C&W in the warranty inspection reports. Against this column, simply mention “Cost will be advised by the Railway Board”.

Along with other remarks, if any, a written certificate must be given to the effect that the defects mentioned have arisen due to inferior material (i.e. material of wrong specification or cheap quality) or bad workmanship (poor workmanship like bad riveting, welding, fitting etc.) or imperfect protection of the components (Brake cylinder rusted etc.) or any other defaults on the contractor’s part.

C. Numbering of the report

In order to enable the Board’s office to keep a check on the performance of each nominated C&W Depot and also to detect the missing reports, all Warranty Inspection Reports must be serially numbered.

For uniformity it is desired that the C&W Depots should indicate the number of Warranty reports in three barrels by indicating the station code in the first barrel, Warranty in the 2nd barrel and serial number of the report in the last barrel. For example ASN/WTY/81 indicates that this warranty report was sent from Asansol Wagon depot, ‘WTY’ refers to Warranty report and ‘81’ refers to the serial number of the warranty report i.e. serial number the wagon which has been warranty inspected from the commencement of the inspection.

Date on which the Warranty report is submitted must be indicated. The representative of C&W who signs the report should ensure that his designation is properly recorded by affixing his rubber stamp, which should indicate the designation as well as the reporting station.

D. Disposal of the Proforma

 In the case of wagons built by railway workshops, the report should be sent to the following addresses :-

1. The workshop which manufactured the wagon

2. CME of the manufacturing Railway.

3. Secretary (WP)/Railway Board/New Delhi.

4. CME of the inspecting zonal railway

5. Sr. D.M.E. of the inspecting division

 In the case of wagons built by private manufacturers, the report should be sent to the following addresses :-

1. Wagon builder

2. Secretary (WP)/Railway Board, New Delhi.

3. G.M.(Mech.) of the inspecting zonal railway

4. CME of the inspecting zonal railway

5. Sr. D.M.E. of the inspecting division.

E. It is necessary that Senior Divisional Mechanical Engineer must send the warranty inspection report to the parties indicated above after inspection without any delay.

F. After submission of the warranty reports, the Railway Board will decide the finalisation of claims. If any wagon builder returns the warranty report or refuses to accept the claim, such cases must be immediately advised to Railway Board.

d) MAINTENANCE OF RECORDS

The Train Examining Depot should maintain following files and registers:

 One file for filing all the policy instructions on warranty inspection received from their divisional office/CME. The representative of C&W should be conversant with the instructions issued from time to time. It is desired that an index sheet be maintained giving the particulars of the letters so as to keep a continuity of all the instructions.

 A second file for filling all the warranty inspection reports, intermediate or finally submitted by the Depot.

 A third file should be maintained for filing all correspondence regarding warranty inspection, periodical statements of inspections carried out etc.

 A register should be maintained giving the following details of the wagons inspected during the warranty period :-

a) Date of Inspection

b) Wagon No.

c) Owning Railway

d) Wagon Code

e) Name of Builder

f) Date of Commissioning

g) Defects noticed

h) Warranty inspection report no. and Date

i) Remarks

The above inspection procedure of warranty inspection does not in any way preclude any Railway from reporting any defect direct to the wagon builder and to the parties mentioned above. In the same manner, if defects are noticed at any time during the warranty period. During the intermediate warranty inspection, stenciling of the Station Code and date of Inspection should not be done on the wagon. This should only be done at the time of final warranty inspection.