LRS TECHNO BOOKS

RELIABILITY & SAFETY IN RAILWAY PRODUCTS

M. Diener – A. Ghidini

This book closely examines Fracture Mechanics applied to railways solid wheels. Fracture Mechanics has played a key role in improving rolling stock material and Lucchini RS, in cooperation with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology ETH Zurich, has carried out intensive research in order to characterized, assess and compare materials for Railway solid wheels in terms of Fracture Mechanics criteria.

RAILWAY NOISE: THE CONTRIBUTION OF WHEELS

A. Bracciali – M. Pippert – S. Cervello

Lucchini RS committed to try to help its customers to reduce several types of railway noise that are described in this book, developing since mid ‘90s solutions available and tailored on specific application. book deals with railway noise, a by-product of railway transportation which is annoying a large part of the people living in densely populated areas.

WHEELS FOR FREIGHT CARS

A. Ghidini – M. Diener – J. Schneider

This book summarized the development of advanced steel grades for solid wheels that represents one of the key factors for improvement in wheel/rail interface management philosophy. Railway system is always in search of longer wheel-rail life and for those reason Lucchini RS has developed innovative wheel steels with a combination of good ductility and cyclic yield strength.

STRUCTURAL RELIABILITY ASSESSMENT OF RAILWAY AXLES

S. Cantini – S. Beretta

This book summarizes the results of least decade of studies carried out by Lucchini RS together with Politecnico di Milano with the aim of introducing a new approach to axle design, less experience based and more related to real service conditions, in order to run safely also out of “comfort zone” defined by existing design standards.

SUPERLOS^®
INNOVATIVE STEEL BY LUCCHINI RS FOR HIGH-SPEED WHEEL APPLICATION

A. Ghidini – M. Diener – A. Gianni – J. Schneider

This book is focused on high speed rail (HSR) and the contact between rail and wheel, more precise the material behavior of the wheels in service under the condition of high speed. Thanks to any successful experience, SUPERLOS® is for Lucchini RS the best selling innovative steel grade for solid wheels, particularly for High Speed and extreme environmental and loading applications.

LUCCHINI RS
TOOL STEEL SOLUTIONS

A. Ghidini – G. Di Mario – L. Poli – F. Rizzani

This book covers tool steel grades and describes the various solutions on offer today for use in critical applications. Innovative materials for tools and moulds are indicators of industrial development as they are potentially able to extended tool life and reduce energy consumption.

SPECIAL WHEELS FOR MASS TRANSIT

A. Ghidini – M. Diener – J. Schneider

This book describes steel grades for wheels, tyres and wheel centers for mass and rapid transit and describes the various solutions offered today for the use in critical applications. The distribution of mass and rapid transit systems shows the growing interest of local authorities in sustainable mobility. For this reason, Lucchini RS is carrying out since a long time a deep comparison between the worldwide technical specifications for solid and tyred wheels, introducing a common criterion of characterization of piece representative of the batch.

RESILIENT WHEELS:
A KEY ELEMENT FOR MODERN URBAN MOBILITY

R. Gallo – S. Cervello – S. Cantini – R. Forcella

This book describes all steps of technical development of resilient wheel by Lucchini RS: starting from the evolution of the technical features of the product to the development of testing methods and research topics. Lucchini RS’s experience in field of resilient wheels that represents not only a tradition of designers who have progressed over time, but also the collection of a great deal of return data from the service, as well as experimental data, which constitute a technical heritage.

A MODERN APPROACH TO WHEELSET MAINTENANCE PLAN OPTIMISATION

S. Cantini – S. Cervello – R. Gallo

This book is focused on a scientific approach to wheelsets maintenance. Lucchini RS has put together the last findings in railway research in a volume proving a detailed though complete view about wheelset maintenance. By relentlessly implementing cost efficient design improvements, real-time monitoring, best-in-class testing procedures, wheelset condition based maintenance is possible, opening up opportunities of high vehicle efficiency at equivalent if not better availability.

SANDLOS^® WHEELS

A. Ghidini – A. Faccoli – A.Mazzù

This book is focused on the SANDLOS® wheels. The in-depth research and development work conducted by Lucchini RS with the cooperation of the University of Brescia allows us to present a new class of steel grades called SANDLOS®, a set of three innovative steel grades for solid wheels able to run in the desert’s high temperatures and sandstorms.

THERMOSTABLE WHEELS

A. Ronchi

This book is focused on thermostable wheels and Lucchini RS design, technical and technological capabilities applied to tread-braked wheels, even more critical for safety and service than other railway wheels.
Lucchini RS SURA® solutions from the design, operational, TLCC and acoustic points of view, underlined by dedicated benchmark analyses that can be an advantage for operators facing the issues related to the present freight market scenario. SURA® is a versatile design, easily adaptable for different applications also for non-freight railway vehicles and even for High Speed trains, with positive service feedback.

FORTIUS^®
A STEEL EVOLUTION FOR FRACKING APPLICATION

A. Ghidini – M. Grisanti – T. Smith

In this book, Lucchini RS aims to describe its experience as a supplier of special steel grades for the Hydraulic Fracking sector. In order to meet the needs and the expectations of the Customers, which are always looking for longer-lasting Frac fluid Ends, LRS has developed and offers a new generation of innovative high-strength martensitic stainless steel grades, under the brand FORTIUS®: they show excellent and balanced performance in terms of fatigue limit, corrosion and wear resistance, impact loading toughness, weldability in case of repair, machinability during manufacturing.

HYPERLOS^® WHEELS FOR SHOE-BRAKING APPLICATIONS

M.Faccoli / A.Mazzù / A.Ghidini

It’s well known that Fracture Mechanics is an innovative science developed on the field of materials initially in Universities and Research Center, with the aim to understand mechanisms of failures and avoid “brittle fractures”.

According to the history of the solid wheel described in the Chapter 6.6.2, the transfer of Fracture Mechanics in railway sector has been required by railway end users in the late ’80s, in order to avoid brittle fractures in service of rim chilled solid wheels for freight cars and, in this case, Fracture Mechanics became a special “safety index” for railway end users.

The LRS TECHNO 1 book, published by LRS in 2008, represented the first attempt to closely examine the state of the art of Fracture Mechanics applied to railway “shoe braked” rim chilled solid wheels in the period 1986 – 2006.

In recent years we have seen the wheels of Lucchini RS, as described in previous issues of the LRS_TECHNO book series, “rolling” through several environments, equipping trains of all kinds, but the old “shoe braking system” remains a stable and not dead technology. In fact, the technology of “shoe braking” is still active not only for standard shoe braking applications in the freight segment, but also for special application on the High Speed service and on the “Snow block brake control” for train operating in winter climate. For this reason, LRS decided to propose an updating about Fracture Mechanics applied to materials design for solid wheels from 2008 onwards.

The in-depth research and development work conducted by Lucchini RS with the continuous and precious cooperation of the University of Brescia in the last decade allows us to present an innovative steel grade, called HYPERLOS®, designed specifically for the heaviest shoe braking application of the worldwide market, in compliance with EN 13262 standards.

The results collected on the production of HYPERLOS®, monitored over a long period according to the Fracture Mechanics approach, demonstrates the efforts made in the right direction in the design of materials: better Strength and better Fracture Toughness.

In addition to its integrated steel-manufacturing process, the Lucchini RS Group operates a worldwide customer assistance network, and supports the Users in materials design and collecting feedback from the field.

Optimization of the Total Life Cycle Cost of the wheel should induce Operators to select qualified suppliers able not only to guarantee the steel quality itself, but also to understand the potential damage mechanisms encountered in special applications, so that the best technical solution is proposed and put into service. The last volume of the LRS_TECHNO series provides clear examples of the application of this philosophy.

The reader will discover in the LRS_TECHNO 13 book the complex technologies and evolved methods required to develop innovative wheel materials, as well as Lucchini RS Group’s passion, talent and creativity for advanced Customer-oriented solutions.

TRANSFORMING MAINTENANCE WITH DATA

S. Cantini
with the contribution of S. Beretta / M. Carboni / S. Cervello / P. Lanzi / F. Lombardo / A. Mattiello

“First predictive and then proactive maintenance is not about tracking your fleet health or rolling stock wellbeing. It’s about increasing ROI by optimizing wheelset inspection frequency, boosting safety, reducing environmental impact, increasing vehicle availability or extending their services beyond their current business models”.

What’s more many of these solutions can be implemented from day one to help transform the railway industry even further, make it increasingly modern, economical, efficient, sustainable and data-driven. Mind the change!”

Alberto Mattiello, Business Futurist

“The digital transformation that has involved all areas of railway transport in recent years has made large quantities of data available, collected through railway network management systems, sensors installed on the network and rolling stock. This data offers great potential for improving the management of rolling stock. For this reason, the railway sector has seen a growing interest in possible applications of data science in maintenance, railway network management and safety. Specifically, data science applications related to maintenance account for 49% of this type of scientific research, network management for 29% and safety for 22%”.

Pierluca Lanzi, Full Professor, Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering (DEIB), Politecnico di Milano