Modernization

In order to improve the running qualities of railcars, reduce the expenses for their in-service maintenance throughout the entire life cycle, the Design and Process

About Modernization

In order to improve the running qualities of railcars, reduce the expenses for their in service maintenance throughout the entire life cycle, the Design and Process Agency for Development and Modernization of Railcars of Ukrzaliznytsia has developed a project for a complex modernization of bogies model 18-100. This project was identified as C03.04. The concept of the C03.04 project is to use motion stabilization systems which are adapted to railcars of 1520 mm tracks and to increase wear resistance of the bogie components such as:

Resilient constant contact side bearings designed to damp the hunting oscillations of the bogie relative to the car body (which allows to increase the critical speed of a railcar and reduce the wear rate of separate units).
Wear-resistant parts of the units for friction shock absorbers: friction shoes made of high-strength cast iron with elastomeric polyurethane pads on the diagonal friction surfaces and wear-resistant friction plates designed to significantly reduce wear of the wedge-type damping system, which allows to significantly increase the life of its elements, ensure the failure-free operation of a damping unit, keep the coefficient of friction within a significantly long period of operation and prevent wear of the sloped surfaces of bolsters.
Center bowl liners (for the improvement of the function of the center plate unit and reduction of its wear).
This project also envisages the use of the ITM-73 (01) wear-resistant profile of the wheel tread surface. Wheels with non-linear profile ITM-73 allow to reduce the wear rate of wheel flanges and rails more than 3 times and ensure a smooth motion of railcars while negotiating curves, which allows to significantly increase the service life of wheel sets.

By the decision of the Commission of the Council for Railway Transport of Authorized Specialists of Railway Equipment of the Railway Administrations of the CIS Countries of 22 – 24 November 2005, project C03.04 was added to the "Code list of Modernization of Freight Cars"; it was agreed on March 19 – 21, 2007 that gondola cars on 18-100 bogies subjected to complex modernization under the C03.04 project may run on main railway tracks. Starting from June 01, 2007, the project is recommended to all railway administrations. The wear-resistant parts applied for complex modernization are used in freight bogies of new-generation freight cars with an extended service life (32 years) and maintenance-free distances up to 350 thousand km (4 years of operation).

Advantages of modernization

Significant reduction of wheel – rail interaction forces and, as the result, the wear reduction of their contact surfaces.

Possibility of increasing the range of operational speeds of empty freight cars by 30-40 km/h.

Increase of the safety factor of resistance against derailment which means the improvement of traffic safety.

The life of the friction shock absorber elements is increased 7 to 10 times.

Effective damping of hunting and rolling oscillations.

The life of wheelsets is increased 3-4 times with regard to wheel flange wear.

Wear of the center plate elements is reduced 3-5 times.

Wear of the friction surfaces in the axlebox opening is reduced.

Modernization Effect

The video shows comparative tests of railcars on modernized bogies (on the right) and railcars with conventional bogies model 18-100 (on the left) when moving in the empty mode.