More Safety with Reducer Bearings in the Rail Industry

With its successful track record in the rail industry, NSK has developed a new range of gear bearings, further improving the level of safety in older generation products. Can be used to support both large and small transmissions in railway gearboxes, these bearings are ideal for high and low speed applications.

NSK's bearings for small gear shafts mark a new era in value added with higher safety and less maintenance requirements. NSK's bearings for large gear shafts also provide a high level of safety. It has expanded its standards to cover different sizes in order to meet customer needs.

Reducer bearings operate under severe conditions under the vibrations and impacts of the wheels moving on the rails. Such harsh conditions make regular maintenance of bearings a necessity, which means increased workload. The assembly, maintenance operations of tapered roller bearings used to support gears and pinion shafts, and the adjustment of the appropriate bearing clearance are very difficult tasks that can be done by expert maintenance engineers. These operations increase the cost of ownership (TCO) of the railroad companies and cause serious time loss and workload.

NSK has developed new bearings incorporating proprietary technologies, taking into account the higher safety demands against these challenges. The overall benefit of NSK innovations is to significantly improve assembly (small gear bearings only), extend maintenance intervals, and contribute to lowering TCO.

Its design, which allows low maintenance costs, is among the most basic features of the bearings used in small gear shafts. The combination of new cylindrical bearings and four-point contact ball bearings simplifies assembly and maintenance by eliminating the need for bearing clearance adjustment. NSK ships these bearings with predetermined clearances, thus ensuring highly optimized results. Another improvement is related to cage strength, which is vital where there is intense impact and vibration. NSK has developed a ring-guided cage with optimized pockets with 'R-shaped' corners. This unique design reduces stress in the cage structure by 75%.

The new bearings for small gears also feature a specially heat-treated inner ring to ensure dimensional stability even under long-term use at high temperatures. Very high dimensional stability prevents the bearings from sliding along the shaft by preventing friction.

For the high-safety tapered roller bearing series used in large gear shafts, NSK has added many new standard sizes to its product range to meet the increasing demands. Rail vehicle manufacturers can quickly and easily supply these widely tested standard bearings in their new designs. Manufactured with over a century of expertise, proven quality and reliability, NSK rail bearings are the products preferred by the largest rail operators in more than 20 countries.