Howells logo

Case Study Specialist Design

  • Client - Thales
  • Product - Signals / Indicators

Legacy signalling is now being replaced with 21st Century technology, and Thales, a leader in the World’s largest and most complex signalling projects market have been instrumental in this progress. We have been collaboratively working with them in the UK and Canada, covering projects on London Underground, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Chile to develop and manufacture bespoke signals to meet the individual and diverse needs of our client and the environment in which they are employed.

.01

Development

Our Thales journey started in the UK with JNUP (Jubilee Northern and Piccadilly Line Upgrades) for London Underground.  Following the successful delivery of the client’s needs we have been working with Thales to develop and enhance a range of products for the UK, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Canadian markets. This range included Speed Signals and Route Secure, Rail Gap and Points Position Indicators.

.02

Teamwork

Successfully working in collaboration with the client was essential in ensuring mutual needs were met. Through this, we demonstrated:

  • Engineering Capability and flexibility to address and solve the changing requirements.
  • Experience and ‘know how’ in meeting their technical aspirations (which were challenging and required in some cases pioneering solutions and innovation.)
  • High precision manufacturing capability and build quality.

.03

Improvements

  • Enhanced capability and reliability in the move from Incandescent to Fibre optic, Fibre optic / LED hybrid and then to full LED Indicators.
  • Improved character display in a restricted operational environment.
  • Interchangeable front indicator panel for ease of maintenance.
  • Introduction of condition monitoring / Alarm Circuits for use in tropicalised environments.
  • Plug and Play capability.
  • Individual LEDs (Not chains) which gives graceful degradation and maintains character readability in the event of individual LED failures

.04

No Constraints

We love working face to face, but we are also comfortable working via remote conferencing, telephone or emails, and Thales are a good example of our ability to work under this type of geographical constraint. Whatever the distance or requirement, we can design, develop and manufacture to your specification. Our capabilities are underpinned by the engineering and design strengths that are inherent within the business.