OREANDA-NEWS. On 21 January 2009 was announced, that in December 2008, Vyksa Steel Works (VSW, Nizhny  Novgorod Region), part of United Metallurgical Company (OMK), produced and delivered to Uralvagonzavod (Nizhny  Tagil, Sverdlovsk Region) about 2.5 thousand railroad wheels with rims of enhanced hardness and curvilinear (S-shaped) disks. These wheels will be used for new-generation freight cars manufactured for Russian Railways (RZD).

In November 2008, Certification Register of the Federal Railway Service (RS FZhT) issued to VSW a certificate of conformity for the production (until late 2009) of 8 thousand railroad wheels of 957 mm in diameter with rims of enhanced hardness and S-shaped disks with axle load of 25 ton-force.

The structure of S-shaped disk wheels ensures 1.5-fold higher fatigue strength (cyclic-stressing strength) and operation durability, and a 15% longer mileage as compared with regular (flat-cone disk) wheels. They can withstand axle loads of up to 30 ton-force as compared with the maximum axle load of 23.5 ton-force in regular wheels. The use of S-shaped wheels will enable Russian Railways to increase cargo transportation without enhancing its car fleet and reduce its rolling-stock repair and operational costs.

S-shaped wheels, used abroad for a long time, were not used in Russia until recently. In 2003, VSW started to master this production technology in cooperation with All-Russian Railway Transport Research Institute (VNIIZhT). During 2005-2006, VNIIZhT successfully tested a trial batch of S-shaped wheels; based on the test results, RS FZhT issued to VSW a certificate of conformity for the production of its first 2 thousand wheels. In late 2006, pilot batches were dispatched to Uralvagonzavod, Altai Wagon Works, and Ruzayevsky Wagon Works for equipping new freight cars.

VSW has the world's largest wheel-rolling facilities, which uses special grade of steel of its own production to annually manufacture more than 820 thousand solid wheels for rolling-stock. The largest wheel consumer is Russian Railways, with whom OMK signed, in 2003, an agreement for supplying 4.8 million wheels until 2010. Most of those wheels are ones with rims of enhanced hardness; their production was first mastered by VSW in cooperation with Russian Railways in 2004. Service life of such wheels is 12 years (as compared with 6-7 years in regular ones), which enables Russian Railways to significantly reduce its operating costs.