NNOVATIONS DONE ON ZONAL RAILWAYS – FEBRUARY, 2016

Eastern Railway

Fabrication of Traction Motor Armature Commutator Grinder in assembled position- Traction Motor Armature Commutator Grinder for ALCO locomotives has been fabricated and assembled in house by Diesel Shed Andal for grinding of armature commutator without removing armature from traction motor. Previously, dismantling of armature was required from traction motor for grinding of armature commutator. Now, dismantling of armature is not required, resulting in saving of manpower and time.  

East Coast Railway

Traction Motor blowing in WAP4/WAG7 Locos- To avoid Traction Motor commutator flashing cases in WAP4/WAG7 locos, Electric Loco Shed, Visakhapatnam has started during this month external air blowing by providing moisture trapping arrangement as well as by switching ‘ON’ MVMT after opening Traction Motor bottom inspection cover.

Picture-1 Picture-2 Centre Pivot Jack- Electric Loco Shed, Angul has fabricated a Centre

Pivot Jack for easy assembly & disassembly of Centre Pivot during major schedules.

South Central Railway

To prevent rotation of alternator suspension pin in AC & TL coaches and subsequent failure of alternator bushes, the suspension pins of 25 kW alternators are modified with “U” shape along with anti rotating clamp. There has been no failure of bushes after this modification.

Picture-3 (Before Modification) Picture-4 (After Modification)

4.5 KW alternator pulleys in TL coaches have been provided with clamps to prevent V - belt slippage on run. There has been no belt dropping problem on these coaches after this modification. This arrangement is being extended to more coaches to reduce belt consumption and improve coach availability.

Picture-5

Modification of tractive effort limit switch in GE Microprocessor Locos- In GE microprocessor fitted locos, existing software does not support limiting of maximum tractive effort to 30.5 ton, by restricting the traction alternator output current to 3000 amps, as in the Medha microprocessor locos. To overcome this problem, tractive effort is limited by controlling the engine speed through governor.

Diesel Loco Shed, Guntakal has modified speed circuit of Woodward governor through a Time Delay Relay to incorporate tractive effort limit in GE make MBCS in ALCO locomotives without interfering with the in-built software. A toggle switch is provided in the front panel to limit the power to 5th notch, in case the throttle handle is in 6th, 7th or in 8th notch. Tractive effort limiting is achieved by bringing down the engine speed to 5th notch speed if throttle handle is above 5th notch. The modification has been advised to RDSO.

Western Railway

Automated bio-diesel- Automated on-line bio-diesel blending facility constructed with the help of M/s. HPCL at Diesel Shed Vatva was commissioned on 10.02.2016. This is the first of its kind on Indian Railways. 5% bio-diesel blending with 95% HSD (labelled B5 blending) will be done on-line in the new facility instead of manually mixing in tank. The automated online blending facility is PLC programmed, having provision for blending up to B20 i.e. 20% bio-diesel, 80% HSD.

Picture-6 Gadget for pressing bushing in various pumps- Sabarmati Diesel

Shed has developed a gadget for uniform pressing/inserting of bushes in water pump, piston cooling pump and scavenging pump during Y6 schedule. This would lead to improved service life of the components.

Picture-7 Picture-8 Picture-9

GAD

BUSHINGGADG

Development of mounting arrangement for checking of radial clearances of the bearings- During overhaul and subsequently during the fitment of new bearing at both ends of traction motor, free radial clearances of these bearings are very important because any mismatch of these bearing can lead to bearing seizure.  Till present, the radial clearances were being taken in a very simple manner by placing the bearing on a fixed rod and then using the filler gauge.  This did not give the fully correct results.

The Electric Loco Shed, Valsad has developed and fabricated a mounting arrangement for checking of radial clearances of the bearings, by using released pieces of both end shaft of armature and then properly welding on the stand.

This arrangement gives better and accurate results and is suitable for checking bearing free clearances for both TAO & Hitachi bearings.

Picture-10 (Front view) Picture-11 (Side view)

West Central Railway

LED Danger Lamp – A light weight LED Danger Lamp having a small chargeable battery, magnet and 24 nos. Red LED has been developed by New Katni Jn. Depot staff for using in Passenger Yard. During train examination and engine changing in Passenger Yard, this lamp can be fitted on coach easily with the help of magnet attached on it and can be used as danger lamp.  

Bearings

Released welded

armature shaft

Picture-12 Arrangement of bypassing the after-cooler - It is seen that there is no

arrangement of bypassing the after-cooler during its failure due to CRO or leakage. This is causing failure of loco on line. To avoid the loco failure on line due to failure of after-cooler, an arrangement has been made to bypass the after-cooler by providing 03 nos. additional isolating cocks in the loco TOH by Electric Loco Shed, New Katni Jn.

03 nos. additional

isolating cock.

Picture-13