Developments and Test Results of Wheel-Disk Braking Systems for the Maglev Vehicles

Hiroshi SEINO
Engineer, Vehicle Engineering Div.,
Maglev System Development Dept.

Masayoshi AZAKAMI
Senior Engineer, Vehicle Engineering Div.,
Maglev System Development Dept.

Hiroshi YOSHIOKA
Chief Researcher, Maglev Systems Technology Lab.,
Maglev System Development Dept.

Erimitsu SUZUKI
Researcher, Maglev Systems Technology Lab.,
Maglev System Development Dept.

Hiroshi OSHIMA
Senior Engineer, Linear Express Development Div.,
Central Japan Railway Company

Madoka FUJII
Engineer, Linear Express Development Div.,
Central Japan Railway Company


The new test vehicles of "MLX01" ("M"agnetically "L"evitated e"X"perimental vehicles) have been examined on the Yamanashi Test Line since last spring. On December 12 last year, a speed of 531 km/h was achieved as the world speed record of manned trains. Moreover, on December 24, 550 km/h was achieved as the world speed record of unmanned vehicle run. The Maglev vehicle is operated and controlled ordinarily by a linear synchronous motor which consists of ground coils and the onboard superconducting magnets (SCM). In this system, ground coils function as stators and the SCM function as rotors. However, in extraordinary cases, the vehicles are stopped safely by on-board mechanical back-up braking systems. The on-board mechanical back-up braking systems consist of aerodynamic and wheel-disk brakes. This paper reports systems of the wheel-disk brakes and results of the running tests.