Cold Forge
Cold Forge is an Australian engineered track products designer and distributor founded in 1958, supplying proprietary rail fasteners, plates, clamps, monitoring equipment, and specialist tools to major rail authorities and contractors across Australia, with exclusive distribution partnerships for British Steel, Metalelektro, and InterBolt.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded1958
- HeadquartersCaringbah, Australia
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingHardware or Manufacturing
What Cold Forge does
Cold Forge is an Australian engineered track products designer and distributor serving the domestic rail infrastructure sector. Founded in 1958 as a fastener manufacturer and headquartered in Caringbah, NSW, the company ceased in-house manufacturing in 2011 and now operates an asset-light distribution and design model, sourcing from Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, and Asia. Its proprietary portfolio centers on the GageLok Rail Screw (over 15 million units installed across Australia and North America), the patented ClampLok rail clamp (AU Patent 2023201195), the SlabLok concrete fixing system, and the award-winning Bow-Lok Heavy Duty Bow Plate co-developed with ARTC for the Hunter Valley 30TAL heavy haul coal network. The portfolio also encompasses fishplates, sleeper plates, anchors, lateral stability devices, ballast mats, crane rail products, and specialist battery-operated maintenance tools.
The company's go-to-market is enterprise field sales targeting major Australian rail authorities and contractors — including ARTC, Queensland Rail, Sydney Trains, TasRail, Arc Infrastructure, and John Holland — supported by Type Approvals across multiple authorities and ISO9001 certification. Cold Forge holds exclusive Australian distribution rights for British Steel rail/steel sleepers (with a Progress Rail partnership covering North American GageLok sales), Metalelektro rail measurement and diagnostic equipment (since September 2025), and InterBolt remote bolt load monitoring (since August 2025). Revenue derives from hardware sales of engineered track components and tools, project-based contracts (the largest disclosed being a $2.3M Arc Infrastructure program covering 6,000+ steel sleepers), and a small online storefront for tools and accessories.
Cold Forge is a privately held, family-operated business with Andrew Carroll (Managing Director since 2004) as the major shareholder and a leadership team of seven including a Sales Director, National Sales Manager, Design Engineer, Finance Manager, Operations Manager, and a third-generation Technical Consultant. The company has won the 2025 PWI Ken Erickson Innovation Award and continues to expand its product surface into rail monitoring and diagnostics via recent European principal partnerships.
Cold Forge firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Cold Forge
- Legal name
- Cold Forged Products No. 1 Pty Ltd
- Website
- https://coldforge.com.au
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 1958
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Cold Forge is an Australian engineered track products designer and distributor founded in 1958, supplying proprietary rail fasteners, plates, clamps, monitoring equipment, and specialist tools to major rail authorities and contractors across Australia, with exclusive distribution partnerships for British Steel, Metalelektro, and InterBolt.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Cold Forge industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Rail Infrastructure Equipment
- NAICS
- Fastener, Button, Needle, and Pin Manufacturing (339993), Plate Work and Fabricated Structural Product Manufacturing (33231)
- SIC
- Railroad Equipment (3743), Bolts, Nuts, Screws, Rivets & Washers (3452)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Fasteners, Anchors & Connectors (Bolts, Weld Studs, Plates) (IMADACAJ)
Keywords
Where Cold Forge is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Caringbah
- HQ country
- Australia
- HQ region
- Oceania
Offices1 record
Markets served
Cold Forge business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Hardware or Manufacturing
- Cost components
- Supply Chain, Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales
Revenue model
- Product Sales: Direct sales of engineered track products including rail fasteners, sleepers, fastenings, and related components. Products sold to rail authorities and contractors for installation and maintenance of rail permanent way.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | Impact Drive Extensions and Adaptors |
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | Impact Drive Sockets - Square and Rectangular |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels5 records
Cold Forge product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Cold Forge designs, manufactures, and supplies engineered rail track products for railway infrastructure, including rail fasteners, steel sleepers, sleeper plates, fastenings (such as the proprietary GageLok, SlabLok, Bow-Lok, and patented ClampLok systems), crane rail and soleplates, fishplates, clamps and junction plates, special trackwork, track monitoring/measurement devices, and maintenance tools. Products serve heavy haul, light rail, and industrial rail applications and are supported by type approvals from major Australian rail authorities, with supplementary agency partnerships with British Steel and Progress Rail.
Product overview
Cold Forge is an engineered track products company offering a comprehensive portfolio of rail infrastructure components organized into product ranges: Rail & Crane & Light Rail (including Australian Standard Rail AS1085.1, Crane Rail, Crane Rail Soleplates, Crane Rail Tie Backs, Crane Rail Pads, Crane Rail Clips), Sleepers (Steel Sleepers AS1085.17), Sleeper Plates (AS1085.3, Turnout/Split Plates DPC/SPC), Fastenings (GageLok Rail Screws AS1085.18, SlabLok Concrete Fixing System, Bearer-Lok System, Bridge Fastenings, Dog Spikes AS1085.8, Fang Bolts, Pandrol Resilient Fastenings, Molyneux Crane Rail Fastenings, Filler-Lok Hole Filler), Fishplates/Clamps/Junction Plates (Fishplates AS1085.2, Bow-Lok Bow Plates, ClampLok Rail Clamp, ClampLok-G Rail Clamp, JUNCTION-LOK Junction Plates, LokRod Gauge Tie Rods, Fishbolts/Heel Bolts/Nuts AS1085.4, Fish Plate Lock Nuts, Security Lock Nut), Track Stability (LokAnchor Rail Anchors AS1085.10, LatraLok Lateral Stability Devices, Ballast-Lok Rubber Ballast Mats), Monitoring & Measurement Devices (Metalelektro equipment, VoidEase Digital Track Void Meter, InterBolt Remote Bolt Load Measuring), Tools (Drive-Lok, SpikeLok, Drill-Lok-M, Broach-Lok, BoraLok Auger Bits, Impact Drive Sockets, BroachLok, Flexovit Maxx 3, Norton Thermit Grinding Stone), and Special Trackwork (Strong-Lok). The company also serves as exclusive Australian distributor for Metalelektro rail diagnostics and InterBolt bolt monitoring solutions.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Steel Sleepers (and Sleeper Plates)
Companies that use Cold Forge
Customer profileNamed customers8 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles2 records
Cold Forge technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed No
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature5 records
Cold Forge partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Eight partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- MetalelektrocoreCold Forge appointed as exclusive Australian distributor for Metalelektro rail measuring and diagnostic equipment. Metalelektro is a European specialist in rail measurement and diagnostic technology with more than 70 specialised products including track geometry, rail profile, fatigue crack detection, and temperature measurement equipment.
- InterBoltcoreCold Forge appointed as distributor for the Australian rail market by InterBolt for their remote bolt load monitoring solutions. InterBolt's intelligent bolt load sensor combined with onsite and fully remote monitoring through InterBolt Gateway provides bolt load measurement capabilities.
- British SteelcoreCold Forge is the exclusive distributor for British Steel rail and steel sleeper products in Australia. Steel sleepers are manufactured by British Steel in the United Kingdom and are high quality engineered products used across the world. Cold Forge also supplies British Steel crane rail products.
- Progress RailcoreStrategic partnership with Progress Rail in the US who market the GageLok product range in North America. Cold Forge designs innovative timber fastening products for the US rail industry which are then manufactured and marketed by Progress Rail.
- PandrolminorPandrol mentioned as one of the industry leaders Cold Forge partners with. Cold Forge supplies Pandrol Resilient Fastenings as part of their product range.
- ARTC (Australian Rail Track Corporation)coreCollaboration between ARTC and Cold Forge to develop the Heavy Duty Bow Plate for the Hunter Valley Heavy Haul Coal Network. ARTC identified the need and collaborated on engineering brief; Cold Forge developed concept; Reliance Hexham manufactured the plates.
- Reliance HexhamminorReliance Hexham undertook the detailed design and manufacture of Heavy Duty Bow Plates to the engineering brief developed collaboratively by Cold Forge and ARTC.
- MolyneuxminorCold Forge supplies Molyneux Crane Rail Fastenings as part of their product range for crane rail applications.
Scale indicators7 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Cold Forge competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- Progress Rail (a Caterpillar company): Major rail equipment and services provider that markets Cold Forge's GageLok range in North America. Highly comparable as both a rail products supplier and channel partner; overlaps directly in track components and rail infrastructure solutions.
- voestalpine Railway Systems: Division of voestalpine producing rails, turnouts, fastening systems, and signalling. Comparable in engineered rail track components (fastenings, sleeper plates, turnout plates) at significantly larger scale and global reach than Cold Forge.
- Vossloh: Large European rail infrastructure group with extensive rail fastening, switch systems, and rail services. Comparable as a full-line engineered track products supplier with overlapping product categories (fastenings, plates, concrete solutions) but a much broader portfolio and global footprint than Cold Forge.
Direct peers
- Lewis Bolt & Nut: Manufacturer of heavy-duty industrial fasteners including rail products (screw spikes, frog bolts, track bolts). Comparable to Cold Forge's fastener heritage and current product range of rail screw spikes, fang bolts, and structural fasteners used in trackwork.
- L.B. Foster: US-based supplier of rail products, including rail, trackwork, and fastening systems. Comparable as a specialised rail infrastructure component supplier serving freight and transit customers with similar product categories to Cold Forge, though at larger scale.
- Pandrol: Global leader in rail fastening systems and track products. Highly comparable to Cold Forge as both design and supply rail fastening, sleeper plates, and related engineered track products; Cold Forge actually distributes Pandrol Resilient Fastenings in Australia, confirming direct product overlap.
Emerging players
- Schwihag: Swiss/European specialist in rail fastening systems and turnout technology. Comparable niche overlap with Cold Forge in engineered rail fastening solutions, particularly for turnouts and concrete sleeper fixings, though focused primarily on European rail networks.
- Atlantic Track & Turnout: North American rail products distributor and fabricator supplying rail, turnouts, frogs, and special trackwork. Comparable in business model as a distributor/fabricator of engineered rail track products to railroad customers, similar in scale to Cold Forge.
Regional players
- Lankhorst Rail: European supplier of rail products including plastic/composite sleepers, fastening systems, and rail components. Comparable product mix in sleeper fixings and engineered track components, with a regional focus on Europe rather than Australia.
Others
- Molyneux (Industrial): Australian crane rail fastenings manufacturer that Cold Forge distributes. Listed as a peer because of the product category overlap in crane rail fastening systems, even though Cold Forge acts as their Australian distribution channel rather than competing head-to-head.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Cold Forge social profiles
Digital presenceCold Forge compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance1 record
Cold Forge financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Cold Forge leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles7 records
Cold Forge funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Cold Forge M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Cold Forge
What does Cold Forge do?
Cold Forge designs, manufactures, and supplies engineered rail track products for railway infrastructure, including rail fasteners, steel sleepers, sleeper plates, fastenings (such as the proprietary GageLok, SlabLok, Bow-Lok, and patented ClampLok systems), crane rail and soleplates, fishplates, clamps and junction plates, special trackwork, track monitoring/measurement devices, and maintenance tools. Products serve heavy haul, light rail, and industrial rail applications and are supported by type approvals from major Australian rail authorities, with supplementary agency partnerships with British Steel and Progress Rail.
Is Cold Forge a public or private company?
Cold Forge is a private company. It is classified as family owned and is currently operating.
When was Cold Forge founded?
Cold Forge was founded in 1958. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Cold Forge based?
Cold Forge is headquartered in Caringbah, Australia, in the Oceania region.
How does Cold Forge make money?
One revenue line is on record: product Sales.
Who are Cold Forge's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are Progress Rail (a Caterpillar company), voestalpine Railway Systems and Vossloh. Direct peers are Lewis Bolt & Nut, L.B. Foster and Pandrol. Emerging players are Schwihag and Atlantic Track & Turnout. Lankhorst Rail is listed as a regional player. Molyneux (Industrial) is listed as an others.
Does Cold Forge have an API?
No public API is recorded for Cold Forge.
What industry is Cold Forge in?
Cold Forge's product category is Rail Infrastructure Equipment. Its primary akta.pro industry code is IMADACAJ, Fasteners, Anchors & Connectors (Bolts, Weld Studs, Plates). Its NAICS code is 339993 and its SIC code is 3743.