Chinese Electric Locomotives Wing Uzbekistan s Railway

Uzbekistan s Customized Electric Locomotive Rolls off Production Line

Ever since Han Dynasty, the camel ring sounded and the silk road extended. Today, the siren of Chinese electric locomotive resounded through the millenary ancient road to speed up Uzbekistan s Railway.

On April 21 the first electric locomotive that was researched by CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd. and would be exported to Uzbekistan, successfully rolled off the production line, and in this year 15 electric locomotives of such kind will be exported to Uzbekistan, an ancient country on the Silk Road, so as to speed up its railway.

So far, Uzbekistan s total railway mileage hit 4300km including electric railway of nearly 1000km, and its electric locomotives make up about 23.5% of its total locomotives. Today, the country is actively promoting the railway modernization so as to build up 2000km electric railway within 10 years as well as to speed up its passenger transportation and freight transportation respectively to 160km/h and 120km/h.

Import of Chinese electric locomotive is an important component of Uzbekistan s railway modernization. In April 2002 the country firstly signed a contract in respect of purchase of 12 advanced AC drive electric locomotives with CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd. Since being put into running in 2003, the 12 electric locomotives speed up Uzbekistan s passenger transportation and freight transportation respectively to 120km/h and 100km/h from 65km/h and 50km/h, with single unit s traction weight increasing from 1500t to 4000t. After that Uzbekistan s locomotive technology evolved from DC to AC and its railway transportation level was advanced for more than 20 years.

Director of Technical Office of Uzbekistan Locomotive Affairs Bureau Mr. Jahongir.Turgunboev said: Uzbekistan totally has locomotives of about 400 units; however, in railway transportation the first batch of 12 Chinese locomotives assumed 43% of Uzbekistan s annual passenger transportation volume and more than 30% of the annual freight transportation volume. By now, these Chinese locomotives have transported 220 million person-times of passengers and 80 million tons of freight. On the ground of that Uzbekistan further intensified its technical cooperation with China so as to accelerate its railway equipments modernization. In June 2008 it signed new order with China and the first electric locomotive in the new order rolled of the line.

On June 27, 2009 Uzbekistan National Railway Corporation signed the Memorandum of Understanding for Railway Transportation Cooperation with CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd., and it also involved the new order into Sino-Uzbekistan Memorandum of Understanding for Railway Transportation Cooperation Project. Such move played an active role to consolidate Chinese railway equipments market status in the Central Asia and the Commonwealth of Independent States.

In the research to Uzbekistan s newly customized electric locomotive, CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd. made use of the global optimal resources for integration and innovation, and it fully adopted relevant international standards of IUR, The Russian Federation, EU, and IEC; meanwhile, it introduced relevant noise-reducing technology and parts meeting international environmental protection standard, in a bid to produce the low-carbon and environmentally-friendly locomotive. By integrating advanced technologies like Siemens converter and network control and Russia s brake and signal system, CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd. s locomotives can full meet Uzbekistan s railway conditions like wide rail gauge, numerous bends, small curvature and strict environmental requirements minimum temperature: -40 , maximum temperature: 50 . To improve the locomotive quality, the company employed its independently-invented C₀-C₀ AC electric locomotive railway bogie and the all-new large-power main transformer for traction of mixed traffic locomotive. In drive unit the company firstly employed elastic suspension mode, with designed hourly speed being advanced from 120km to 160km.

Uzbekistan s newly customized electric locomotives will assume the traction to most of its international trains and through trains on the electric railway, and the passenger transportation capacity of Uzbekistan s electric railways will be doubled. Uzbekistan s railway equipments modernization level will be also further improved.

CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd. s Walk out strategy received high praise from the party and state leaders as well as relevant leaders from the Ministry of Railways and HunanProvince. HunanProvince and ZhuzhouCity has put forward the slogan Cultivate RMB 100 billion Rail Traffic Industry Cluster Centering on CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd. , so they provided the company with strong support in ministerial and provincial cooperation Ministry of Railways and HunanProvince s relevant support agreements, industry policies, land, and supporting projects etc.

CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd. is China s only complete locomotive & rolling stock research enterprise with IRIS certification. Under the premise of the global financial crisis the company successively won orders of such countries and regions as the Middle East, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan in recent years, and it also set foot in Europe and Singapore markets by its light rail train and metro engineering maintenance vehicle, which strongly boosted the growth of domestic industry chains. While being interviewed, the Executive Director and General Manager of CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd. Xu Zongxiang said: our company will provide worldwide customers with all-round and systematic solutions through accelerating independent innovation and giving full swing to the system s integrated core technologies.

Research of Uzbekistan s Newly Customized Electric Locomotives

CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd. will export all-new AC drive electric locomotives to Uzbekistan, and in the locomotive design and production the company integrated the international tiptop production resources and scientific research resources for the lean production in light of IRIS standard. It also referred to American standard for project management and control, and it purchased locomotive components from the world most competitive vendors in Germany, Russia, and Czech.

In 2003 the first batch of electric locomotives, which were exported from CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd. to Uzbekistan, assumed 43% of Uzbekistan s annual passenger transportation volume and more than 30% of the annual freight transportation volume. After that Uzbekistan s locomotive technology evolved from DC to AC, and these locomotives accordingly became the Business Card of National Railway from the capital of Uzbekistan Tashkent touted as the Golden Channel of Economy to Samarqand, the largest tourism city in Uzbekistan.

Uzbekistan s newly customized electric locomotives abbreviated as New Uzbekistan Locomotives, with colors of Uzbekistan s national flag on vehicle body, will roll off the production line at CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd. on April 21, and these locomotives designed speed will increase from 120km/h to 160km/h, with continuous traction power of 6000kw and maximum traction force of 420KN. What new technologies these New Uzbekistan Locomotives have adopted? What aspects they are advanced in?Recently, our reporter interviewed relevant experts of CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd. in respect of locomotive design, production, and technical characteristics.

Keep Pace with the World and Refer to International Standards in Research and Production

In CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd. s factory area there is the skyscraping building of the State-levelTechnicalCenter. Here, you will also visit the world largest electric locomotive and urban rail vehicle research & production base with annual capacity of 800units/year electric locomotives and 1000 units/year urban rail vehicles, the serpentine locomotive & rolling stock experimental line with the longest line and most complete functions among domestic counterparts, as well as internationally advanced equipments like locomotive assembly production line, bogie production line, and vehicle body production line etc. In the factory area many China s First vehicles were produced, such as China s first electric locomotive, China s first complete rolling stock electric locomotive for export, and China s first independently-produced Type A high-end metro vehicle.

By virtue of international tiptop large-power Hexie electric locomotive s research and production platform, we refer to international standards in the design and production of New Uzbekistan Locomotives , said Vice General Manager of CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd. and General Manager of Uzbekistan Locomotive Project Chen Youzhuan. In the design and production of New Uzbekistan Locomotives, CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd. adopted internationally advanced technical standards like IEC, UIC, Germany DIN, and Russia GOST etc., and it relied on technical introduction, assimilation, and re-innovation to set up high-end large power AC drive electric locomotive research & production platform. The company also abided by Advanced, Mature, Economical, Applicable, and Reliable technical principle for independent innovation, development and production. Chen Youzhuan added: based upon the international standard, only the steering bogie frame should experience 10 million times of fatigue life experiments.

As a signatory country signing lots of international environmental protection documents treaties, Uzbekistan has achieved several bilateral or multilateral environmental protection treaties in railway development, such as CEIA Treaty for evaluating environment influence, BASEE Treaty for controlling dangerous wastes, and Vienna Treaty for protecting the ozone layer etc. Considering Uzbekistan s actualities, CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd. also referred to standard in its design. For instance, domestic enterprises usually adopted low-cost lead-acid batteries as the locomotive accumulator, but New Uzbekistan Locomotives project introduced the high-cost nickel-cadmium battery meeting international environmental protection standard so as to meet the country s low-carbon and environmentally-friendly requirements.

By making use of global optimal resources for integration and innovation, CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd., in the design of New Uzbekistan Locomotives, extended its industry chains to Germany, Russia and Czech etc, so as to purchase the parts with the best price-performance ratio. For instance, the company purchased brake system from a Russian vendor, and such move not only meets railway technology standard of Central Asia but also facilitates New Uzbekistan Locomotives to be interconnected with local locomotives and rolling stock.

From trial production to running the production period of New Uzbekistan Locomotives only lasted for 99 days. While being interviewed, Supervisor of CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd. s Project Management Center Zhang Minyu said: high-efficiency project process should be attributive to the company s import of American Standard Project Management System. By all-round and 3D project running mode, the company systematically and scientifically organized the project planning, design output, new parts trial production, assembly and tooling, logistics, and project schedule so that the first locomotive s static commissioning was completed five days ahead of the schedule.

More User-friendly New Uzbekistan Locomotives thanks to Localized Design

Uzbekistan railway s rail gauge is 1520mm85mm wider than domestic railway, and railway in Uzbekistan also features numerous bends and small curvature, in addition to large temperature difference in Uzbekistan minimum temperature: -40 , maximum 50 .

Therefore, to maintain safe and stable running in the circumstance featuring numerous bends and large temperature difference, the locomotive s traction power performance and brake performance are especially important. Deputy Chief Engineer of CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd. Li Yang said: we have made lots of innovative designs so as to optimize the relation between wheel and rail of the New Uzbekistan Locomotives and enable them to have sufficient margin when running at the bending rail. In addition, installation of Russia s - locomotive safety signal system and driver alarm system will make the locomotive brain more flexible as well as intensify the locomotive s safety and reliability.

Li Yang added: according to Uzbekistan s requirement, our locomotives shall not be put into running until they have passed the country s relevant safety and environmental influence evaluations, thus our locomotive design should both ensure the personnel safety and reduce the influence to the using environment. Therefore, we adopted several safety devices in the design and alarmed the operator by different safety signs so as to ensure the operator s personnel safety and the equipment s safe running.

To reduce noise of the New Uzbekistan Locomotives, CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd. made lots of technical innovations. In accordance with UIC651 standard, the company optimized main noise sources on the one hand, and it also adopted new materials and methods to cut off or reduce noise propagation. In this way, passengers will not hear loud noise or clunk when the locomotive is running.

Lots of our designs meet Uzbekistan s localization requirements, thus New Uzbekistan Locomotives can better meet local running conditions , said Design Supervisor of CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd. Uzbekistan Locomotive Project Zhou Ande while being interviewed.

Speedup Brings about a Leap of Quality

The designed locomotive speed increased from 120km/h to 160km/h, and such speedup brings about a leap of quality: the company firstly invented C₀-C₀ AC electric locomotive railway bogie, and it firstly employed elastic suspension mode in the drive unit; also, it designed the all-new large-power main transformer for traction of mixed traffic locomotive. It is worth pointing out that the successful research and production of the New Uzbekistan Locomotives filled China s blank in electric locomotive AV drive collection.

While being interviewed, the Design Principal of CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd. s Uzbekistan Locomotive Project Li Xining said: the running speed of the New Uzbekistan Locomotives has been advanced to 160km/h. To achieve the quasi-high speed running, our company equipped the locomotive with larger power device on the one hand, and we also implemented light-weight design and production on the other hand.

Based upon foresaid principle, CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd. customized the 160km/h C₀-C₀ passenger transportation AC electric locomotive steering bogie for the New Uzbekistan Locomotives, which was the first invention in China. Such steering bogie in elastic suspension mode resembles a pair of Rubber Joints to the locomotive so that the locomotive s legs are more flexible and intelligent. In particular, when the locomotive is running at the bending rail, the Rubber Joint will automatically regulate the locomotive s stability so as to greatly improve its safety coefficient.

A leap of quality is also exemplified from the transformer research and production. According to requirements of Uzbekistan s railway department, resistance equipment shall be installed in the locomotive transformer so as to supply power to the train, and such design is unprecedented in international arena. Li Xining said: research and production of the transformer is undoubtedly an all-new innovation.

To crack such hard nut, CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd., through introducing and assimilating advanced technologies of traction transformers of Siemens large-power electric locomotive and Japan Mitsubishi Corporation s EMU, leveraged internationally advanced electromagnetic simulation design means to start a 3-month original design, and it successfully researched the international tiptop large-power traction main transformer in the long run. Such transformer not only met passenger transportation locomotive s requirements for high speed and high safety but also catered to freight transportation locomotive s requirements for large-power traction. In addition, the weight of the transformer with electric winding did not increase but decrease.

Only the first-class production technique leads to perfect design. CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd. strictly followed IRIS standard to implement the lean production of the New Uzbekistan Locomotives. Last year, the company invested 1.4 billion CNY in its unprecedented Capacity Expansion & Reconstruction Project, by which, it newly built up several modernized production lines like locomotive commissioning, general assembly, vehicle body manufacture, and steering bogie production etc. so that it has set up an internationally advanced manufacture platform, on which, the company s technicians gave full swing to their own talents, thus Made in CSR was redefined as Created in CSR .

Vice Supervisor of CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd. s ProjectManagementCenter said: in New Uzbekistan Locomotives research, the newly produced technical equipments hit 104 sets, and the compiled technical specifications amounted to the number of 208. In the project the company achieved tooling production and standardized production, and all parts processing shall meet tooling flows so as to ensure the quality. At every workflow and operation step employees shall refer to definite technical specifications so that all employees know what kind of products they should produce, how to produce products, and how to efficiently ensure the product quality.

Now, the first New Uzbekistan Locomotive has rolled off the production line, but in CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd. s 360m-long general assembly workshop the left 14 New Uzbekistan Locomotives are being produced in batch and in order.

From the workshop to the horizon faraway shining rail is extending, and at the other end of the rail there is CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd. s dream of unceasing innovation.