Drives

Drive systems in railways are used to transmit the torque on the traction motor or the combustion engine, usually operating with higher speeds, to the wheel set via a gearbox.
Drive systems have to be powerful, environmentally friendly, cost-effective and require very low maintenance. These requirements are much more stringent than those required of cars, for example, because the intervals between servicing are much longer. New main line locomotives are maintained frequently, but main service is done after the locomotive has logged between 1 million and 1,5 million kilometres. These locomotives operate, on average, more than 1 000 kilometres a day. Very high speed trains operate with 350 km/h and reach much higher mileages. Two major topics the AC propulsion systems and low floor mass transit vehicle designs caused fundamental changes in the drive design.
Related links and documents
- Sensorized traction motor bearing units (Evolution article 3/2009)
- Hybrid bearings for electrical machinery (Evolution article 3/2001)
- Prevention of electric erosion in bearings (Evolution article 2/2001)
- New drive systems for mass transit (Evolution article 2/2001)
- Optimised bearings for locomotive transmissions (Evolution article 2/1999)
- Electrically-insulated bearings (Evolution article 3/1996)
- Development of traction motor bearings (Evolution article 2/1996)
- Drives preferred range (7.9 KB)
- INSOCOAT tapered roller bearings for suspension tubes (1.3 MB)
- SKF sensor technology - detects the real situation (419 KB)
- Solutions for traction motors (1.1 MB)