On 28 August 2018 as part of Measure 4.1 of the Operational Programme Intelligent Development 2014-2020 co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund, Agreement No. POIR.04.01.04-00-0067/17-00 for project financing was signed in Warsaw:
”Intelligent precision lathe for regeneration of rail vehicles wheelsets.”
The agreement was concluded between:
1. The National Centre for Research and Development; ul. Nowogrodzka 47a, 00-695 Warsaw
and
2. A consortium made up of :
- Wrocław University of Technology; Wybrzeże Stanisława Wyspiańskiego 27, 50-370 Wrocław (the consortium leader),
- Design and Development Company “KOLTECH”, Ltd.; ul. Gospodarcza 2, 47-400 Racibórz (partner),
- Implementation of Scientific and Technical Progress Company “LASERTEX”; ul. Swojczycka 26, 51-501 Wrocław (partner).
The project which implementation period is planned for the period from 1 June 2018 to 31 May 2021 concerns an innovative CNC lathe for precise and highly efficient regeneration of wheel outlines of rail vehicle sets in an intelligent way.
Its characteristic feature will be supporting the regeneration process with a digital process model and intelligent procedures, and the possibility of direct measurement on a lathe any types of surface defects such as flattening, pitting, cracks, etc. The abovementioned options will be complemented by the monitoring of wear and chipping of cutting tool inserts with the use of specially designed measuring devices.
The project will include industrial researches and development works which will allow to construct a prototype of a unique wheel lathe, create and verify capacitive and optical-laser measurement systems, a system for monitoring the wheel lathe errors during the process of sets regeneration, and will also allow to develop a digital model of these errors with the help of which the CNC system will generate a toolpath in real time or very close to real time, taking into account and compensating the occurring disturbances.
The above will be executed using intelligent procedures.
Conducted researches and experimental and numerical analyses of the operational, static and thermal properties of the lathe will enable proper identification of lathe errors, their compensation and improvement of controllable axes. This work will be complemented by the development of software optimising the processing and its monitoring.
This will allow to achieve high accuracy and significant shortening of the profile regeneration cycle of processed wheelsets, while increasing their life cycle and maintaining environmental friendliness.
The value of EU co-financing for the whole project amounts to PLN 7,318,125.89.
