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Russian Railway networks facing "imminent collapse": report
(www.newsweek.com)
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this post was submitted on 09 Aug 2024
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What do ball bearings have to do with railroads, and why can't they buy them from China?
Oh I like this topic! Fun fact, Ball Bearings are actually a SUPER important little thing and a major hallmark component of the industrial revolution. You need to be able to make really good ball bearings in order to make a rotating joint that's just decent, and churning out perfect little spheres by the tens of thousands was one of the first tests of the modern world's capacity to make things in industrial quantity.
Basically, a standard rotating joint (simplified) has an inner metal band, eight ball bearings equally spaced around the inner metal band, and an outer metal band that traps all the ball bearings between it and the inner metal band. This means that the two bands can be rotated with incredibly low friction and relatively low wear. This is used in basically every machine with moving parts, and trains absolutely fit that criteria.
But it's definitely not operated with zero wear, especially in machines that are constantly operated and weigh a lot, like trains. Ball Bearings can and will wear down during operation and need to be replaced semi-frequently.
As for buying them from China... I would assume that's totally possible, but China might not have enough stock, or they could be trying to leverage their position to sell the ball bearings at a high markup since Russia doesn't have the ability to buy elsewhere.
The Chinese ones are just malteasers painted silver
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Finally
I've actually recently ordered a pair from Aliexpress! My vacuum brush has one inside and it became unsealed. All the grease inside got replaced with hair. So I got a replacement from Aliexpress, and it's both sealed properly and with enough precision for my vacuum to operate properly. So the takeaway is they don't make maltesers this small.
A ball bearing in a vaccum cleaner is a bit different from one on a trains axles...
Yeah those are definitely maltesers
A LOT of devices with moving parts, especially heavy ones, rely on ball bearings. As for the second part of your question, I just don’t know.
You could, it, ball bearings are a thing that frequently high precision, both in the metallurgy and in the machining and hardening.
And trains require that high precision. Keep in mind depending on where it’s at, that bearing might be getting exposed to high temperatures, heavy loads, and lots of friction. They may be custom diameters and are ordered with some really tight tolerances.
These particular bearings aren’t just found on Amazon and shipped the next day. China may not have the capacity to meet the demand (and it is a strategic resource, so they may not want to anyhow.)
Even then, they’re not the kind of ally who just bails out your national economy with out a quo to go with that quid, if you know what I mean. (My assumption is that China is backing Russia to turn them into a vassal state, like North Korea. Or get concessions on their disputed borders, etc.)
Bearings for rolling stock are actually relatively hard to come by, and there are only a few countries that even produce the two different steel alloys they are made from.
Ten companies in the world manufacture 75% of the bearings used in rail. With like 5 of them being located in Japan, and the rest in the US, Germany, and I believe Sweden. China only produces about 20% of bearings used in rail, but they are pretty much all for domestic use, as they are still expanding their network.
Couldn't they just use journal bearings? I think the majority of American rolling stock still uses journal bearings.
That's mainly because America mostly moves freight via trucks, and thus has very outdated rolling stock. It's not unusual to see freight chassis that are 50 plus years old.
Russia on the other hand moves the majority of their freight via rail, and like most countries utilize tapered roller bearings for their trains. This allows them to carry a lot more weight, and the bearings last nearly 3x as long.
I'm not quite sure what would be harder, to import new bearings, build a production line from the ground up for bearings, or retrofit all their rolling stock with outdated technology.
Each choice is going to be expensive and extremely time consuming.
Ah I see, makes sense.