BONAXLE® is an innovative induction hardened axle. It is our solution of requirements for increased safety and reliability and reduction of life cycle costs (LCC) and carbon footprint. GHH-BONATRANS further improved the technology already well established in Japan by adapting it to other steel grades, axle shapes and complete axle length.
This innovative technology improves strength of all axle types without the need to change their geometries and steel grades and protects the axle from damage along its entire length.
Where other axle protection technologies fail, BONAXLE® takes over.
BONAXLE® is already saving costs for operators in Europe and Asia.
BONASTAR® is a series of enhanced steel grades for all types of locomotive, passenger-vehicle and freight-wagon wheels, and for rubber sprung resilient wheels for trams and metro cars.
They fully meet requirements of applicable standards, and in addition, compared to common steel grades, they also bring significant benefits for the user, such as up to 30% longer service life.
They also feature higher resistance to rolling contact fatigue (RCF) and suppression of wheel tread shelling.
BONASTAR® steel grades therefore ultimately reduce life cycle costs (LCC) as well as carbon footprint and enhance reliability and safety.
BONASILENCE®is a family of highly efficient dynamic noise absorbing systems developed and continuously enhanced by GHH-BONATRANS. They are characterized by exceptional noise reduction – up to 8 dB(A) for rolling noise and up to 30 dB(A) for squealing noise. Service life is not limited by the service life of the wheels. The possibility of reuse on a new wheel during wheelset maintenance reduces the carbon footprint as well as life cycle costs (LCC).
Customized solutions for individual combinations of wheel/rolling stock/noise reduction project to achieve maximum noise reduction for the complete system.
GHH®SILENCE – Innovative Sound Absorbers for Quieter Rail Traffic
With GHH®SILENCE we offer state-of-the-art technology for effective reduction of rolling and squealing noise in rail traffic. The solutions were developed specifically to minimize noise at the source, thereby sustainably increasing public acceptance of rail transport — especially in urban environments. Between 50 and 250 km/h, rolling noise dominates, while in narrow curves at lower speeds, disturbing squealing noise often occurs. This is precisely where the GHH®SILENCE absorbers come into play.
Our GHH®SILENCE-PL and SILENCE-SR absorbers cover different application areas — from solid wheels to resilient wheels. All variants are based on optimized metal-elastomer structures that provide broadband damping of vibration energy, reducing rolling noise by up to 8 dB(A) and squealing noise by up to 30 dB(A). The systems are durable, retrofittable, low-maintenance, and designed with environmental compatibility in mind.
GHH®V60 – The Proven Resilient Wheel for modern Light Rail Vehicles
The GHH®V60 is one of the world’s most successful resilient wheels for trams and LRV’s. Since its introduction in the 1990s, more than 100,000 wheels have been delivered — clear proof of its reliability in demanding urban rail operations.
Thanks to its simple, robust design with only a few main components and a high-performance elastomer ring, the GHH®V60 offers excellent running characteristics.
High torque transmission and slip resistance ensure operational safety even under extreme braking and acceleration conditions. At the same time, the design allows for fast and economical tyre replacement — a crucial advantage for operators with stringent availability and lifecycle cost requirements.
With wheel diameters from 400 to 870 mm and wheel loads up to 75 kN at a radial stiffness of 80–250 kN/mm, the GHH®V60 is highly versatile. It meets the fire protection requirements of EN 45545 HL2 and is ideally suited for vehicles with limited installation space, such as low-floor designs or integrated drive systems.
GHH®ULTRA-P – The Super-Resilient Wheel for Maximum Demands in Urban Transit
The GHH®ULTRA-P represents maximum reliability and a wheel design proven for decades. It combines high radial elasticity (evtl. deflection) with a robust, durable construction — ideal for modern low-floor trams and demanding track conditions.
Its special design allows a high radial deflection of 2–4 mm, reducing dynamic track forces and structure-borne vibrations by up to 50 percent. The result: lower noise emissions, significantly improved ride comfort, and reduced stress on vehicles and infrastructure.
The arrangement of paired rubber pads between the hub, tyre and pressure disc ensures a secure, form-fit transmission of force and torque. Since only the tyre disc acts as an unsprung mass, the wheel contributes significantly to smooth, track-friendly running characteristics.
GHH®ULTRA-S The New Super-Resilient Wheel for the Highest Demands in Urban Transit
The GHH®ULTRA-S represents a new generation of rubber-sprung wheels, specially developed for modern tram and light rail systems. The wheel combines the proven characteristics of the highly elastic GHH®ULTRA-P and GHH®ULTRA-R wheels while meeting increasing requirements regarding wheel load, ride comfort, and space constraints.
The GHH®ULTRA-S is designed for wheel diameters of 600 mm (new) or 520 mm (worn) and axle loads up to 12.5 t. A key strength is its very low radial stiffness of 20–40 kN/mm, allowing particularly high deflection. This effectively reduces shocks, vibrations, and track loads — a clear advantage for vehicle, track, and passenger comfort.
The innovative rubber-metal elements transmit forces and moments purely by form-fit while allowing a compact wheel geometry.
Its design enables easy replacement of tyre and rubber components, significantly reducing maintenance time and lifecycle costs.
The proven boltless design of the BONAE-LOCK® rubber sprung resilient wheel, with its unique lock for easy tyre exchange and optimised medium stiffness, is especially suited for modern metro trainsets.
The wheels are standardly equipped with tyres from innovative BONASTAR® steel grades that achieve up to 30% higher mileage compared to common steel grades, thus reducing LCC.
Thanks to the unbeatably short tyre exchange time and the reduced number of spare part items required for the tyre replacement, maintenance costs are reduced even further.
We supply the BONAE-LOCK® wheels either with already mounted effective BONASILENCE® noise dampers or prepared from the manufacture for later additional mounting of dampers, should the transport agency or the city decide to further reduce noise.
BONACOAT® is a range of premium coating systems with extended service life for protection of wheelsets (and their components) of high-speed trains as well as other rail vehicles for passengers and freight transport. They increase the wheelset’s resistance to corrosion and mechanical damage, and contribute to protection against fatigue damage. BONACOAT® coatings significantly contribute to the reduction of the wheelset life cycle costs (LCC), carbon footprint and increases its operation safety.
BONACOAT® coatings meet also the requirements of applicable railway norms, as well as of the ERWA Guideline for Axle Coating, in which the European manufacturers of wheelsets and their components have accumulated their know-how acquired from dozens of years of direct cooperation with the operators, manufacturers and repair facilities of rail vehicles. The scope and structure of these requirements originated in ERWA (The European Railway Wheels Association, part of UNIFE) committees between 2016 and 2021, with the aim to improve protection of axles and increase reliability and competitiveness of the railway transport.
Independent wheel axles 12.5 ton
Having started with the introduction of this technology in Europe more than 30 years ago, nowadays nearly all tenders for new trams and light rail vehicles (LRV) worldwide call for low-floor vehicles. These vehicles need to be designed for high transport capacity.
The new 12.5t independent wheel axle is based on the proven and reliable GHH®V60 wheel type. Its modern upgrade for high axle loads is based on a one-piece, die-forged portal axle design and a pair of tapered roller bearings, adjusted optimally during assembly. The wheel diameter is adjusted to cover the higher axle load requirement. We supply Independent Wheel Axles with correspondingly adjusted portal axles for the whole range of inner distances between the wheels: e.g. from 1,355 mm to 1,392 mm.
Advanced speed sensor & ground contact system for non-driven independent wheel axles
Our contribution to the upgrade of trailer-independent wheel axles easies the access to all components/subsystems of the wheel axle. The speed sensor and electric ground contact are mounted on the portal axle end. This design, including the flange-mounted brake discs, uses far less space than other solutions. The extra space can be used for the placement of additional elements, e.g. hydraulic brakes.
