Method for determining the forces acting on a axle box designed for the installation of an adapter bearing

Abstract

The installation of adapter bearings (cassette type) provides new opportunities to achieve longer maintenance intervals and to improve performance and safety. In the developed methodologies for calculating the forces acting on a axle box unit in European and state standards, dependencies are defined for axle boxes with short cylindrical rollers and conical or cassette type bearings where the transmission of the vertical load between the axle box and the bearings is on a cylindrical surface. In the contact area of a segment, in addition to the standard static, dynamic, centrifugal and inertial forces of the axle box, additional forces also act. Overloading occurs when the axle box has become detached from the bearing by lifting off of it. Under these conditions, the transmission of forces between the axle box and the bearing takes place not through the normal tight contact along a segment of 120º, but through the edge of the axle box shell. In this publication, a method is proposed for determining the forces in an axle box designed for the installation of an adapter bearing.