Subway. Vibration Isolation of the Train Air Compressor

Customer and Task

Customer and Task The metro train manufacturers approached us with a requirement for a vibration isolation system for the air compressor. The system needed to reduce vibrations transmitted to the train floor by a factor of 7 to 10 times in three mutually perpendicular directions.

Solution

We developed such a system based on cable vibration isolators and deployed it in trial operation. After covering a distance of 260,000 km, no defects were observed in the system. However, during testing, regulations for permissible vibrations in the train became more stringent, requiring a new level of reduction — from 17 to 20 times.

Result

We refined the existing system design by:

• Changing the operation scheme of the vibration isolators from tension to compression, which lowered the natural frequency of the entire system;
• Orienting the vibration isolators at an angle to the vertical plane to balance stiffness in vertical and longitudinal directions.

As a result, the vibration isolation system successfully passed on-site testing on an actual train over the same distance of 260,000 km and has been put into operation.