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Almost 1.3 mln components have already been registered in the Electronic Inspector system in Russia

9 February 2022
Reading time ~ 4 min
Production of the railway wheels at the Vyksa Steel Works
Production of the railway wheels at the Vyksa Steel Works. Source: OMK
Belov Sergey, Editor-in-Chief, ROLLINGSTOCK Agency
Reading time ~ 4 min
Litvintsova Olga, Editor of International Projects, ROLLINGSTOCK Agency

Russia: At the end of 2021, 34 production sites have been forming digital passports in the system, and in January the largest railway wheel manufacturer of 1520 mm gauge area, Vyksa Steel Works (VSW), fully joined the system.

The Electronic Inspector system creates digital passports for the quality of components with a qualified E-signature. Passports are entered into a single database and are available to all participants in the transportation process. The system is aimed to increase transparency in the Russian railway industry, to provide access to information about the entire life cycle of the rolling stock key parts, to be a solution against counterfeiting

The United Metallurgical Company (OMK), which owns VSW, has announced the connection to the Electronic Inspector systems at the end of January this year. This is the largest enterprise in the 1520 mm gauge area for the production of railway wheels: in 2020, it produced 778 thsd units of this product (-18% compared to 2019). Since 2021, VSW has also mastered the serial production of wheels for the Lastochka EMUs (1.8 thsd wheels were delivered at the end of the year), and in 2022 OMK plans to negotiate with Siemens Mobility about the industrial supply of wheels for the Sapsan high-speed trains.

OMK separately notes that VSW has become the first plant where the technology is integrated into functioning internal electronic document management systems. Alexey Dolgov, head of the OMK Railway Wheels business unit, says that based on the results of the Electronic Inspector system operation in wheel-rolling production, the feasibility of its implementation will be considered for another branch – the OMK Steel Way company (it unites 37 freight railcar repair depots across Russia, which can in overall serve up to 100 thsd cars per year).

As ROLLINGSTOCK Agency was informed by one of the initiators and participants of the Electronic Inspector project, Union of Industries of Railway Equipment (UIRE), information on 1.27 mln parts is currently available in the Electronic Inspector database and includes 14 types of components: side frames, bolsters, axles, wheels and wheelsets, automatic couplers, etc. The accounting system also registers components manufactured before 2010, and information on all additions in the database is transmitted to the Federal Service for Supervision in the Sphere of Transport (Rostransnadzor) on daily basis.

Scheme of the Electronic Inspector system operation Scheme of the Electronic Inspector system operation (full-size picture). Source: ICACC

The project is being implemented by UIRE jointly with the Center of Technical Audit (CTA) of Russian Railways, and the main executive body is the Inspection Center for the Acceptance of Cars and Components (ICACC). The first data began to be loaded in the Electronic Inspector system in April 2020, when it began to operate in test operation mode at the Bezhitsa Steel Foundry (part of TMH), where the first digital passport was signed for freight railcar side frames.

The work of the Electronic Inspector system is planned to be extended to components for locomotives, passenger coaches and multiple unit trains. Thus, the ICACC plans that during 2022 the Electronic Inspector database will begin to be filled with digital passports for axlebox bearings, brake cylinders, brake pads, axlebox housings, and other components.