Rail wheelaxles and bearingsThe innovation continues.doc

Mechanical ArticleRail wheels, axles and bearings: The innovation continues Mechanical — by Walter WeartRail wheels, axles and bearings are among the most fundamental elements of railroading — the very efficiency of railroading depends on how well these elements work together. Progressive Railroading recently reached out to a cross-section of companies that supply wheels, axles and bearings. Technology and market updates from six of them follow. Amsted Rail Amsted Rail manufactures an array of freight-car undercarriage components, including wheels, axles and bearings. Two new focus areas are in the wheel realm — alloy wheels and vertical split rim research, says Vice President of Technical Services John Oliver. In the 1960s, we corrected thermal cracking by developing a low-stress wheel design and we are now concentrating on the split rims, he says. Cracks grow in the wheel rim to the point where the wheel fails inspection or comes apart. Amsted Rail researchers are cutting wheels and, by using X-ray diffraction, measuring internal residual stress. The curved or low-stress wheel designs Amsted developed in the 1960s have minimized overheated wheel failures, Oliver says. In the late 1990s, Amsted Rail addressed shattered rim type failures by making process changes and improvements to ultrasonic inspection testing, he adds. The company also developed a solution to the wheel failures that high horsepower locomotives were experiencing during the late 1990s and early 2000s. We discovered that a natural frequency vibration was causing these defects and were able to develop a design which corrected this problem, Oliver says. The development of the MicroAlloy? wheel also solved a wheel-shelling problem brought about by long, cold winters and dry blowing snow. MicroAlloy wheels are designed to combat thermal-mechanical shelling, which occurs due to prolonged tread braking, combined with high wheel loads, in heavy-haul freight service. MicroAlloy wheels have a higher yiel