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NSK BEARINGS HELP PROPEL WORLD’S FASTEST TRAINS 24 April 2016 A U T O M A T I O N The advanced technology of NSK bearings, with superior reliability, safety, durability and performance has been painstakingly developed for the Bullet Train in Japan and high speed trains in China and throughout the world. Bearings are indispensable to the smooth operation of wheels and motors. Over the half century since the Bullet Train made its debut in Japan, NSK has been developing and delivering high speed railway bearings for the high speed rail network. Now, NSK is taking on the challenge of global markets by deploying the technology and high degree of reliability it has developed. The safe and efficient operation of railway vehicles in Japan and around the world relies upon one key part in particular: bearings. They ensure that the motors and wheel-supporting axles rotate smoothly. NSK boasts the largest share of the Japanese bearing market. For 100 years NSK has been involved in the development and manufacture of bearings used in various machines’ rotating parts, including automobiles, machine tools, and railway vehicles. Masahide Matsubara, NSK director, executive vice President, and head of the Industrial Machinery Business Division HQ, says, “As an estimate, we have an approximately 50 percent share of the railway bearing market in Japan, which is an overwhelming share.” Since Japan’s first bullet train was launched in 1964, NSK has taken the lead in high speed rail bearing development and manufacturing in Japan as well as for rail networks in the UK (IEP), China, Taiwan, and South Korea. Thanks to the bearings that have supported the Bullet Train’s unparalleled safety record, NSK is establishing a solid reputation outside Japan. In 2014, about 50 percent of NSK’s railway business was outside Japan. The company plans to increase this rate to 80 percent over the next ten years. In the UK NSK has extended service life of its wheelset bearings for new Intercity Express Programme (IEP) trains. Based on designs that have delivered in terms of performance and safety on the advanced Bullet trains in Japan, the NSK wheelset bearings have been engineered to match the operating life of the wheels themselves, which is over one million miles. Life Cycle Costing (LCC) is very important to Hitachi, the manufacturer of the IEP trains. The bearings will run for a six year period and be re-lubricated just once, coinciding with wheel maintenance. This equates to over one million miles of operation. Bearing maintenance in the past was conducted prior to the wheel maintenance, which meant removing the wheel twice. By synchronising with the maintenance period of the wheel, maintenance time is reduced and also results in avoiding additional assembly and disassembly work, which is tough on components, some of which are press-fit items. With the expansion of railway infrastructure in emerging countries, and large-scale rail vehicle replacement in Europe, it is clear that the global market will undergo substantial growth in the coming years. In order to ensure safety, bearings must also provide sufficient durability and performance. In particular, highspeed trains that can travel in excess of 300 kilometers per hour require super-performance bearings that can withstand high-speed rotation and still transmit rotational energy efficiently. NSK bearings are overwhelmingly trusted worldwide for this purpose. Evidence can be found in NSK’s large market share for bearings in Chinese high-speed rail vehicles. These trains are the fastest in the world. By providing products that control friction and reduce energy loss, NSK has been contributing to the development of an even safer society. “We pursue optimal designs for each application,” says Matsubara. “Performance and safety are confirmed through repeated testing and analysis to the highest degree. We even develop our own steel and lubricating grease specifically for each application.” NSK’s bearings for high-speed trains are built and tested to withstand speeds of 500 kilometers per hour or more. While increasing durability, NSK has also made bearings more compact and lightweight. A comparison of axle bearings from the very first bullet train and the latest N700 Series reveals that the weight has dropped from 81 kilograms to just 23 kilograms, less than a third of what it was. The lighter and more compact bearings become, the more friction loss can be reduced. This also enables the peripheral parts to be streamlined, which reduces the weight of the railway vehicle, and results in faster speeds. In other words, NSK’s bearing innovation makes a substantial contribution to the creation of faster railways. NSK also makes bearings which have sensors that continually monitor the bearing’s status. This has resulted in advantages such as safety improvement and longer maintenance cycles. Moreover, the company has developed the NSK Bearing Fault Diagnosis System, which predicts when a bearing abnormality will occur, based on information gathered from the sensors. Thus, NSK’s strength lies not just in the capabilities of its bearings, but also in its mechanisms for ensuring safety, as well as its maintenance and after sales service systems. This is the reason that NSK bearings can be found not only in Japan’s bullet trains, but also in high speed trains worldwide, as well as in conventional trains and subway vehicles.


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