Professional Documents
Culture Documents
How Bogie Works PDF
How Bogie Works PDF
Role of Bogie
Figure 1 Wheel and Axle Set
52 Japan Railway & Transport Review 18 • December 1998 Copyright © 1998 EJRCF. All rights reserved.
Figure 3 Non-articulated Bogie and Articulated Bogie Figure 4 Swing Hanger and
Small Lateral Stiffness
(a) Non-articulated cars
Bolster Spring Bogies
Centre pin
Non-articulated bogie
Upper Side bearer
swing
(b) Articulated cars bolster
Bogie frame
Bolster
anchor Bolster spring
Swing Lower
hanger swing bolster
Articulated bogie
Centre pin
Swing hanger bogie and small lateral Bolster and bolsterless bogies Side bearer
Bolster
stiffness bolster spring bogie Bolster and bolsterless bogies (Fig. 7) are
Bolster Air bolster
Based on the structure of the suspension differentiated by their suspension gear. anchor spring
gear, bogies are classified into two types: The bolster bogie was developed first. A Bogie
frame
the swing hanger type, and the small fundamental characteristic of the bogie is
lateral stiffness bolster spring bogie type that it must rotate relative to the body on
(Fig. 4). To ensure good ride comfort on curves, while retaining high rotational
passenger cars, the bogie must absorb the resistance during high-speed running on reducing the number of parts and the
rolling motion that passengers are most straight sections in order to prevent bogie weight (the bolsterless bogie for
sensitive to. Conventional swing hanger wheelset hunting (Fig. 8) that reduces ride shinkansen was commercialized in the
bogie designs support the body by using comfort. To achieve these characteristics, 1990s). In recent years, most narrow-
lower swing bolster beams suspended the bolster bogie has a centre pivot that gauge and shinkansen cars use the
from the bogie frame by means of a link serves as the centre of rotation, and side bolsterless bogie, which permits rotational
consisting of two vertical members that bearers that resist rotation. displacement on curves through the hori-
widen toward the bottom, together with In the 1980s, a bolsterless bogie was com- zontal deformation of bolster springs (also
bolster springs and upper swing bolster mercialized to improve performance by known as secondary suspension springs)
beams (to support vertical movement).
Although the swing hanger type (Fig. 5)
achieves good ride comfort by minimiz- Figure 5 Swing Hanger Bogie
ing horizontal stiffness of the suspension
gear, its maintenance is relatively difficult
due to the complex structure and large
number of wearing parts. In the 1960s,
bolster bogie with air spring that absorbs
vibration due to its small lateral stiffness,
was developed (Fig. 6). It soon replaced
the swing hanger type and was used in
the first shinkansen in 1964, contributing
greatly to their size and weight reduction.
Most recent bogies are of the small
lateral stiffness bolster spring bogie type Swing hanger
because of its simplified suspension (Author)
design.
Copyright © 1998 EJRCF. All rights reserved. Japan Railway & Transport Review 18 • December 1998 53
Technology
Traction
transfer
device
Air bolster
spring
Anti-yawing
damper Bogie frame
54 Japan Railway & Transport Review 18 • December 1998 Copyright © 1998 EJRCF. All rights reserved.
Figure 9 DT50 Bogie
for Series 205 EMU
advantage of their improved ride comfort
and ability to maintain body height.
Bogie frame
Traction transfer device
The bogie frame accommodates various Series 205 EMU (Author)
bogie equipment and is generally fabri-
cated by welding together two side beams Brake equipment Bolster spring
Copyright © 1998 EJRCF. All rights reserved. Japan Railway & Transport Review 18 • December 1998 55
Technology
Axle
spring
Cushion rubber Axle spring Leaf spring
Sliders Cushion rubber
(3) Leaf spring type (4) Axle beam type (5) Coil spring with
cylindrical laminated rubber type
Axle spring Axle spring
Leaf spring
Axle box
Axle box Guide arm Cylindrical
Cushion rubber Axle spring laminated
Axle box rubber
(6) Conical laminated rubber type (7) Roll rubber type
Roll rubber
Conical
laminated
rubber
Axle box
Axle box
shinkansen and its good cushion rubber Wheels, axles and bearings have been made since 1984 to hold the
stiffness effectively eliminates play Wheels of conventional railcars are a solid imbalance per wheel to below 25 kgf•cm
between the axle and bogie frame. How- rolled type, and generally 860 mm in and to balance the wheels when pressing
ever, it has several disadvantages, such as diameter when new. Corrugated wheels them onto the axle.
increased bogie frame length and severe (Fig. 12) with a corrugated outer face have The axle is generally solid, but hollow
maintenance requirements for leaf springs. been commercialized to boost rigidity, types are used for weight reduction with-
As a result, recent bolsterless bogies for while reducing plate thickness and out affecting bending strength. Hollow
shinkansen use other types, including the weight. They have been used for com- axles with a central void were used for
coil spring with cylindrical laminated rub- muter and short-distance trains since the high-speed electric railcars and passen-
ber type. Similarly, narrow-gauge railcars 1980s. The wheel tread is heat-treated ger cars in the late 1950s, but their use
are increasingly using the conical lami- and has the profile shown in Fig. 13. was abandoned due to manufacturing
nated rubber type, the roll rubber type Wheels are susceptible to mass imbal- problems. Around 1975, to improve
(serving both as the axle box suspension ance, which causes vibration of the axle reliability, a hollow axle was developed
and axle spring) and axle beam type in and wheel and is transmitted to the body, by boring a solid axle (Fig. 14). It was
order to simplify construction and reduce producing uncomfortable resonance at first used in 1981 to make lighter drive
manufacturing costs. certain speeds. To prevent this, efforts axles for high-speed diesel railcars
56 Japan Railway & Transport Review 18 • December 1998 Copyright © 1998 EJRCF. All rights reserved.
Figure 12 Corrugated Wheel
between overhaul.
Transmission
The transmission consists of gears and
flexible couplings to transmit motive Figure 13 Basic Wheel Tread Profile for Narrow-Gauge JR Lines (upper)
power generated by the motor or engine and Circular Arc Wheel Tread Used Widely Today (lower)
to the axle. For EMUs, the nose suspen-
sion device, which supports the traction Profile of wheel tread for narrow-gauge JR lines
motor with the bogie frame and the axle Centre distance of wheel pair 560
(via support bearings), was used until the 60 65
1950s (Fig. 15a). The nose suspension 53
3' 20 30 15
device was large and heavy to withstand 1/10 1/20
vibration generated by the axle and also 2
2
due to the slow speed of the motor, re-
14R 15R 15R
sulting in large bogie mass and unsprung
mass. Around 1957, the parallel cardan
driving device (Fig. 15b and c) was put 59'21"
into service by mounting a smaller, high- Profile of corrected circular arc wheel tread
speed motor on the bogie frame supported 125
by axle springs and transmitting the
motive power to the gear via a flexible 60 65
coupling. It enabled reduction of the
bogie wheelbase as well as significant size
400R
30 26.0 16
and weight reduction of the entire bogie, 24.85 15.5 14
and contributed greatly to the develop- 12
ment of shinkansen and conventional
900R
80R
10
express cars.
320R
1/100
DMUs use either electrical or mechani- 14R
27
14R 14R
cal transmission. While the former is used 33.86
primarily in other countries, the latter is
used mostly in Japan. In this case, the 29
motive power from the engine is trans-
65'
mitted via a torque converter and flexible
couplings to the axle using a right angle
cardan driving device (Fig. 15 d).
Unit: mm
Copyright © 1998 EJRCF. All rights reserved. Japan Railway & Transport Review 18 • December 1998 57
Technology
58 Japan Railway & Transport Review 18 • December 1998 Copyright © 1998 EJRCF. All rights reserved.
Figure 16 Roller Type Tilt System
Test run of roller type controlled tilt system using JR Shikoku used the controlled tilt system in its DMU Series 2000 express train (right) and EMU Series 8000
Series 381 express EMU. Car body is tilted. (Author) express train. (Author)
Copyright © 1998 EJRCF. All rights reserved. Japan Railway & Transport Review 18 • December 1998 59
Technology
60 Japan Railway & Transport Review 18 • December 1998 Copyright © 1998 EJRCF. All rights reserved.
Figure 19 Alignment of Link-Type Forced Steering Bogie on Curved Section
Bogie frame
e
ur
ing the centre of the axle to move towards
at
rv
cu
the outside of the curve as a result of the
of
us
di
centrifugal force. The steering bogie is
Ra
designed to make the most of this ability
by reducing the stiffness of the axle box
suspension and increasing the tread
gradient to maximize the difference in
diameter between left and right wheels
Centre of curvature
on the same axle. These features allow
the wheels and axle to move more freely
without sacrificing running stability. This
concept is used in most recent bogie
designs, ranging from those for commuter Figure 20 Lateral Forces of Link-Type Forced Steering Bogie and Non-
trains to express trains. Nevertheless, with Steering Bogie on Rails
this self-steering design, care should be Radius of curvature = 302
Cant = 105
taken to avoid excess reduction of stiff- 60 Non-steering bogie
Maximum lateral force (kN)
ness of the axle box suspension and ex- outside rail lateral force
50
cessive tread gradients. These concepts 10kN
axle centre line is aligned on the radius engineering from Tohoku University. He is the supervising editor for this series on Railway Technology Today.
Copyright © 1998 EJRCF. All rights reserved. Japan Railway & Transport Review 18 • December 1998 61