Kharkov Bearing Plant (HARP) has successfully finished endurance testing of TBU HARP 1520 (150х250) cartridge bearing, developed by the United Engineering Center of the UPEC Industrial Group and Ukrainian Engineering and Technological Bureau of Bearing Industry (UKTBPP), for railcars of increased lifting capacity (innovative railcars) of “1520 gage”.

Endurance testing was made on stands of HARP Test Center, created by the United Engineering Center and UKTBPP and certified by the Government Accreditation Office of Ukraine.

“According to the results of endurance testing, TBU HARP 1520 (150х250)bearings have shown that they meet the highest world standards on reliability, durability, as well as on energy efficiency”, - mentioned Eduard Simson, Director on R&D Centre of the UPEC Industrial Group.

Test center, where were made testing, is a unique laboratory for certification testings of railway bearings, which has no analogues in the former Soviet Union. Unique design of stands, developed in the R&D Center of the UPEC Industrial Group together with the UKTBPP and leading East companies, can provide modeling of exploitation conditions of bearing on any area of rail track.

“So we can test bearings in real-time operation mode of the most complicate areas of rail ways and exploitation conditions. And in case of successful results of testing we can discuss the highest consumer characteristics of these products”, - notes Sergii Semykin, Chief Engineer of the UKTBPP.
In confirmation of quality, there was issued certificate of conformity “UkrSEPRO” and TBU HARP 1520 (150х250) bearings are launching into manufacturing in accordance with established procedure.

It will be reminded that HARP developed series of innovative closed-type cassette bearing units for 1520 gage, which includes cylindrical bearing unit CRU DUPLEX for axle-boxes of freight and passenger cars, double-row bearing unit CRU HARP for axle-box units of locomotives, cylindrical bearing unit of closed-type CRB HARP for traction electric motors of locomotives, TBU 1520 for axle-boxes of freight cars, and which today meet innovative requirements of increased lifting capacity and operating life (8 years or 800 000 km.) during manufacturing and modernization of freight rolling stock 23,5 and 25 ton-force. Ukrzaliznytsya has planned to manufacture 50 cars of increased lifting capacity.

“The full cycle of research, development,manufacturing and testing of closed-type bearing units with increased time between maintenance (8 years or 800 000 km for 1520 gage) is one of the biggest projects on creation of innovative components for new generation of rolling stock and unprecedented result for company from the former Soviet Union, which puts HARP on one line with leading world companies, which propose today the same products”, - says Eduard Simson. Also he notices, that thanks to implemented technical solutions and know-how HARP bearing units of cassette type withstand wide range of outer temperatures from –60°С up to +120°С, and can increase safety of movement and significantly reduce exploitation costs.

In such a way, HARP has confidently entered in “elite world club” of manufacturers of cassette bearing units of increased lifting capacity and today proposes bearing units of cassette type, which meet the highest standards of energy efficiency and have the best combination of price and quality for cars of 23,5 and 25 ton-force of 1520 gage.