The impact of economic sanctions on the production and repair of innovative railcars

Economic sanctions against the railcar building and repair industries have affected the production of cassette bearings of axle boxes used in the production and repair of innovative railcars. Cassette bearings have a number of significant advantages (unique abilities of conical rolling bodies, compactness, small size and others) that allow to realize loads from the axle to the rails of 245 kN (25 tf) or more and thereby increase the gross weight of railway cars to 108 tf. Withdrawal of manufacturers producing bearings from the Russian market (Timken, SKF, Brenko) led to a sharp drop in the production and repair of innovative rail-cars. A comparison of the production volumes of rail-cars in February and May 2022 discovered that there was a significant reduction (at JSC «Uralvagonzavod» and JSC «Tikhvin Railway Car Building Plant»), and by August production had practically stopped. The sanctions forced companies producing bearings (EPK-Brenko, Tek-Com Production) and railcar repair companies to search for new suppliers of components, primarily bearings. Such supplier companies could be Wafangdian (ZWZ), Luoyang LYC (China) and SPZ Bearings (Uzbekistan). As a result of the measures taken and the significant intensification of work, it is assumed that a significant part of the demand for bearings will be covered by domestic plants. The sanctions intensified the refinement and stimulated the production of twincylindrical roller bearings, which, according to preliminary test results, demonstrated the same durability resources as conical cassette bearings (eight years of operation and 800 thousand km of mileage). The paper analyzes and presents the statistics of the production of domestic railcars equipped with cassette-type bearings, and the challenges associated with their production.