Description

On its 3,75 hectare site at Vitry sur Seine just outside the Paris city limits, AEF (Agence d'Essai Ferroviaire) is home to all the scientific and technical skills necessary for conducting tests and producing expert reports on rolling stock. This hotbed of railway know-how is the culmination of a development that dates as far back as 1933 with the inauguration of the locomotive test rig that would later to become the Vitry test centre and subsequently, in 1999, AEF.
 

Workforce

The site has a workforce of 240 engineers and technicians.
 

Principal resources

• An on-line testing unit: tunning dynamics, aerodynamics, braking, electric traction, acoustics & vibrations, current collection, EMC.
• A mechanical test department: vehicle structures, bogie frames and parts, passive safety systems and glass panels. The department can also carry out qualification tests on all running gear components (wheels, axle shafts, bearings and lubricants).
• An electro-technical department: heavy duty traction and geared motor endurance test rigs.
• A physical and chemical analysis laboratory, skilled in the analysis of materials and defects, in industrial hygiene, chemical hazards, fire behaviour, etc.
• An electrical department with access to a 12 MVA power sub-station.
• A section in charge of obtaining the necessary authorisations and handing the logistics required to organise test runs on French railway or any other infrastructure.
• A design department (design and manufacture of measuring wheelsets, instrumentation of pantographs, specific interfaces, bespoke services).
• An assessment and qualification Centre where staff perform non-destructive tests for railway maintenance.

Key strengths

• Rolling stock type testing and commissioning.
• Infrastructure access
• Expert assessments
• Chemical hazards

Accreditations

AEF has ISO 9001certification and is accredited according to ISO 17025 (No. 1-0240 consultable at http://www.cofrac.fr/annexes/sect1/1-0240.doc

To download the full list of the accreditations held by the Railway Test Agency (AEF) click here