Wheels equipped with railroad rolling stock are essential apparatus in terms of safety, ride comfort, cost, and other relevant factors. Since wheels worn out and damaged due to daily operations, railroad operators constantly perform wheel reprofiling to restore the wheel profiles to the design profile, and maintain the safety and ride comfort. However, in addition to the cost required for wheel reprofiling, additional expenditures are unavoidable for wheel replacement due to reduced diameter of wheels by wheel reprofiling. It is an inevitable theme for railroad operators for cost-saving by adequate management of wheels. We therefore in investigated the characteristic of wheel wear of new type commuter trains to acquire knowledge in proposing a suitable wheel management method. Consequently, it became apparent that wheels equipped with sintered metal brake shoes tend to cause concave wears however not causing nay adverse effects to vehicle dynamics, conversely curve negotiation performance improved thus effective in reducing flange wears.

Copyright (c) 2007 Railway Technical Research Institute