Approval of AS Drives & Services

The Dortmund Stadtbahn turned to AS Drives & Services, which specialises in the repair and redesign of gearboxes. The gear experts in Reken, Germany, are aware of the importance of the lubricant as a design element and therefore suggested the loaded gears of the Dortmund light rail system for the test application of the newly developed Eco Gear GLS. In close cooperation between DSW 21, AS Drives & Services and ADDINOL steps were defined to handle the very high requirements. The aim is to achieve considerably longer operating times and damage-free gears.

ADDINOL Eco Gear GLS 75W-90 and 75W-110 were specifically developed for industrial gears with critical and varying conditions and increased requirements. The highperformance gear oil is based on carefully selected synthetic components and a powerful additive package and is characterised by above-average load-carrying capacity on API GL-5 level. At the same time, it achieves long service intervals thanks to its excellent ageing and oxidation stability. The effective reduction of friction coefficient and power loss means lower thermal stress on the gear components, which has a positive effect on their service life. Wear and corrosion are effectively minimised.

Dortmunder Stadtbahn en
Busses and trains in Dortmund travel around the world once a day – based on their mileage

Convincing results in practice

AS Drives has done a thorough job in redesigning the gearboxes. The gear geometry is much better adapted to the more severe requirements of modern operation and on top of that offers more safety at extreme limit loads such as maximum acceleration, maximum speed as well as starting and braking torques.

After the first twelve months, the final drives were routinely checked. Both the maintenance staff and the engineers of AS Drives & Services were extremely satisfied with the results. No damage due to abrasion or micropitting was detected. The team in Dortmund works very thoroughly and the oil is carefully monitored by means of regular analyses. In the analyses Eco Gear GLS showed no signs of foam or ageing processes. These positive results were confirmed during the following regular inspections of the gears. The expected oil service life is at least 350,000 km, probably much longer.

Dortmunder Stadtbahn gearbox
The compact final drives must be able to cope with all critical operational requirements

Based on these positive results AS Drives & Services has given its approval for Eco Gear GLS 75W-90 and 75W-110 for use in bevel gear/hypoid gearboxes in the railway sector. For their part, the Dortmund public utilities have started to convert the gearboxes to Eco Gear GLS on a rotational basis. The proven higher load-bearing capacity minimises the damage considerably. Downtimes and cost-intensive maintenance repairs are no longer necessary. The significantly longer oil change intervals contribute to lower oil consumption per year. ADDINOL Eco Gear GLS – a great advantage for operational
safety and costs.

published: 26.11.2020

Contact

Jana Dudda

Marketing

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