Development of double helical gear for Shinkansen

Abstract

The gear unit of the Tokaido Shinkansen have been installed a parallel cardan driving device since the 0-series, and the gear has been a helical gear. In N700S’bogie, we reduced the weight of various elements considering the running safety, the bogie hunting, the ride quality and the ground vibration. Utilizing the weight saving effect, we incorporated the double helical gear device with somewhat heavier weight but have extremely high reliability. It is the first time that the double helical gear is used in high speed commercial vehicles. Through the field tests and bench tests, etc., we confirmed that the developed double helical gear device has a higher performance compared with the conventional one.