Tihvin Assembly plant “Titran-Express” and SKF have signed the collaboration agreement

Within the framework of the XI International Rail Business Forum 1520 Strategic Partnership Tihvin Assembly Plant “Titran-Express” (TAP “Titran-Express”, is a part of railway holding RPC UWC) has signed the cooperation agreement with SKF (the Russian subsidiary of SKF Group, the largest global manufacturer of bearings and the leading supplier of hi-tech component parts for railway transport).

Within the framework of the agreement, TAP “Titran Experss” will serve as the base for a service maintenance center for the repair of compact tapered axle bearings SKF, mounted on the running gear of the freight rolling stock. In addition to granting rights to use the company’s repair technology, SKF will provide the railcar repair facility with genuine component parts and corresponding regulatory-technical documentation; it will also provide comprehensive advisory support.

Anatoly Usov, CEO at SKF (the Russian subsidiary of SKF Group), said: “An increasing number of Russian manufacturers of freight cars are switching to the production of such innovative rolling stock, where double-row tapered axle bearing assemblies of so called “cassette” type are applied. Last year more than a half of new railcars were produced with wheelsets, equipped with “cassette” bearings. Despite the fact that SKF compact tapered axle bearings possess a long service life and have already confirmed their high operational reliability, we consider the signing of the agreement with Tihvin plant to be a timely one, taking into account the prospects of bearings requiring repair when their term of designed operating resource expires. We hope that joint efforts will allow to lay the basis for a prompt and high quality repair of high-tech component parts”.

Dmitry Losev, CEO at TAP “Titran Experss”, Deputy CEO for Technological Development at RPC UWC, pointed out: “As of today not all railcar repair depots have a capacity to carry out repairs of wheelsets, equipped with cassette bearings. Therefore, it is important to exactly right now back the preparation of the infrastructure for a mass operational use of railcars on new types of bearings. With the signing of this agreement “Titran-Express”, as the head-servicing center of the holding UWC for the operational maintenance of freight cars set on innovative Barber bogies, expands its repair base and engages the function of cassette bearings repair”.

According to the statistical data, about 130,000 of tapered bearings, manufactured by SKF, will come for the repair until the end of 2023 according to eight years of the established term of their operational use.