Locomotive damping systems

Description:

The locomotive damping system consists of the locomotive carriage dampers system, current collector damper, locomotive driver seat damper. Implementation of given system is necessary for significant lowering of the vibrations level, power consumption and improving of the working conditions of the locomotive drivers.

The current collector damper is used to dampen the current collector vibrations for electric locomotives. Its mass is around 2–3 kg while the damper design allows to change the force characteristics of the connection release (up to 3500 N) with constant pressing characteristics. The jointed attachment points keep the damper functional at obliquity angles of ± 4 degrees.

The locomotive driver seat damper dampens vibrations in the most detrimental to human range, significantly improving the working conditions of the employees.

The locomotive bogies damping system provides the allowed level of vibration and running smoothness which will allow to increase lifetime of the locomotive hardware and the track in not less than two times while improving working conditions of locomotive drivers.

The conducted measurements indicated that the permissible levels of vibration on the floor and in the locomotive driver seat are exceeded by 4 times, causing significant damage to the workers' health. Plus in general poorly dampened locomotive is a potentially dangerous means of the consist transportation and requires additional power consumption to continuously overcome the dynamic perturbations. Expert judgments show that the additional consumption is around 10%.