TE 110 ROLLER ON DRUM

Description

The TE 110 Indexing Roller on Drum Rig is an updated version of a rig originally designed, by
Plint and Partners Ltd, some fifty years ago, for British Rail Research.

A disc of wheel material rolls freely, without driving traction, on a drum of rail material. The drum
is indexed under the disc, introducing a small amount of skew between disc and drum, with the
disc following a spiral track on the drum. The skew generates both a small friction torque and a
small axial force. The disc or “wheel” is subjected to more wear and rolling contact fatigue cycles
than a given circumference location on the drum or “rail”.

The drum is supported on air bearings and is driven by a gear-motor. Rotational torque and axial
force are measured with a combined in-line axial force and radial torque transducer. The complete
drum assembly is mounted on a servomotor driven linear slide, which provides the indexing
motion.

The disc is mounted on a pivoted arm, with load applied by means of a servo pneumatic bellows
with a force transducer, for load force feedback to the servo control system.

Control and Data Acquisition

The machine is floor standing with separate control unit incorporating a Phoenix Tribology USB
Serial Link Interface Module. This is connected to a PC with COMPEND 2000 sequence control and
data acquisition software installed. The system provides sequence control of load, rotational speed
and indexing motion.

Re-dressing the Drum

The disc arm can be removed and replaced with grinding head to allow the drum to be re-dressed
in situ.