High-performance lubricants for trains and railways: Breaking down cost drivers for maintenance and service

Which challenge on the customer side has top priority for you and your team?

Kamprath: Whether train manufacturers, component manufacturers or operators: they are all under enormous cost pressure. That's why we support them, on the one hand, in reducing their maintenance and servicing costs. After all, during a train's service life, these costs are significantly higher than its initial purchase costs. On the other hand, we help them to meet the demands of rail passengers for punctuality. The aim is to avoid operational failures by ensuring high reliability of components such as doors, gears and switches. For example, the right lubrication helps to avoid one of the most frequent causes of train breakdowns: a defective door.

What solutions Klüber Lubrication has to offer for the mentioned cost drivers?

Kamprath: We have a comprehensive solution package. Of course, our high-performance lubricants play the central role in this. But it is also about expertise and identification with the customer's situation. As an international team of experts specially qualified and experienced for the railway industry, we get a precise picture of the respective challenges faced by the train manufacturer or operator. Our aim is to understand the problem in all its depth and to work out solutions together with the customer. By the way, the best technical solution is not necessarily the best solution for the customer.

Why not? What concrete does that mean?

Kamprath: Even if switching to one of our gear oils extends its oil change intervals by a factor of two, sometimes this cannot be implemented in a timely manner - for example, if this would mean a disproportionately high personnel and organisational effort. Even more important to us than a quick solution is a solution with long-term viability - and that the customer values us as a trustworthy expert for all his / her tribological questions. Then, in the long term, we can also unlock benefits for them that they may not have considered before.

Which ones, for example?

Let's stay with train doors and the challenge of low maintenance costs: Klüber Lubrication has developed a new special lubricant spray for door seals that can be applied much faster and with a lower lubricant film thickness while maintaining the same performance as the previous product. As a result, our customers save a considerable amount of working time and require less lubricant. Our extensive testing facilities open up further benefits for them. Our tribology department runs model tests that allow us to get very close to a final lubricant solution for a specific application. In this way, the number of costly real tests can be significantly reduced.

What importance do you and your team give to the topic of sustainability?

Kamprath: For lubrication points where the lubricant comes into contact with the environment, we use rapidly biodegradable lubricants, for example for switches and at the wheel flange. In addition, our particularly high-performance lubricants allow the relubrication intervals to be considerably extended and thus the lubricant quantities to be significantly reduced. This helps to save valuable resources and thus our environment.

Klüber Lubrication supports the railway industry with an international team of experts. What advantages does this have for your customers?

Kamprath: Many of our customers operate internationally. Our products are available to them worldwide. Unlike some of our competitors, they have the same name and quality everywhere. We use the same raw materials worldwide and have the same production processes. In addition, our tribology experts are available to advise our customers anywhere in the world, personally and directly on site.