Tribological tests of antifriction materials for the lubrication of rolling stock wheels

The issue of optimizing the use of lubricants to reduce the in-intensity wear of the wheels of traction rolling stock is considered in the work. The purpose of the work and the test objects are defined. The types of tests, their procedure, short description of tests, and compliance with the technical assignment and technical requirements are presented. Design work was carried out on the development of solid antifriction elements for lubricating the ridges of locomotive wheel pairs (hereinafter referred to as TAEL rods). Bench tests were carried out on a universal friction machine 2168 UMT «Unitrib», which models the contact interaction of the wheel with the rail when applying solid lubricant to the wheel ridge. The linear wear rate of the lubricating element and the friction moment were determined. Explutation tests were carried out on the basis of traction rolling stock of the series VL80, 2TE25KM, ChME3. Such indicators as average intensity of development of cores of TAEL and lubricant cores and average intensity of wear of crests of wheels were defined. The results of laboratory bench-out and operational tests of TAEL rods were obtained in accordance with the order of admission of lubricating materials for wheel-rail contact for use in locomotive combs operated on the railways of the Russian Federation. Operational tests of traction rolling stock were carried out at the landfills of the North Caucasus, South-Eastern and Volga Railways. During the performance test period, the following indicators were monitored: assessment of the impact of TAEL on the wear of co-forest steam ridges, assessment of the actual resource of TAEL production, assessment of the functional capabilities of TAEL rods. According to the test results, the developed TAEL rods received permission to use Russian Railways for the infrastructure. At the same time, the wear rate of the ridges of the wheel pairs of locomotives equipped with TAEL in comparison with the standard rods decreased to 50 %.