Innovation in wheelsets

Abstract: Wheelsets are a safety-critical component of the railway industry. It is therefore not surprising that regula-tions and standards in this sector are particularly stringent in order to ensure an always acceptable level of safety. The European Legislation on railways is based on the Technical Specifications for Interoperability (TSIs) that are supported by the EN standards; these prescribe tight specifications limiting the freedom of the designer. Nevertheless, there are anyway two ways to introduce modifications in a railway system: either using the EU Regulation 402/2013 (“common safety method”) showing that the modification has no impact on safety or using the “Innovative solutions” described e.g. in Art. 10 of 2014 LOC & PAS TSI 1302/2014/EU. An overview of the innovations in the wheelset sector is given with the relevant discussion on standardization and on market implications, discussing wheelset architecture and its integration in the vehicle.