Because the need of labor-saving in train maintenance increases, it has become essential to evaluate the durability and long-time applicability of air spring, which is a very important component to control train vibration. Durability tests of air spring revealed that its rubber bellows is degraded by oxygen at the initial stage of usage. As stresses are loaded repeatedly, however, molecular chains are partly cut off, and consequently the tensile strength decreases. It is also found that the degradation of air spring rubber bellows is apparently different at different locations and in different directions in the air spring because it is strongly influenced by the vibration mode.

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