Running gear is the part of the vehicle providing for its connection to the track and accounting for most of its properties. The main part of running gear is composed of bogies. Their concept and design determine both safety and economy of the traffic and reliability and maintenance of the railway vehicle. Development of a high-standard bogie requires a highly qualified synthesis of knowledge from all sorts of areas of technology. Development must respect the given space availability and system interfaces as well as requirements of the relevant standards and regulations.
Railway bogies are divided into driven and regular bogies, or train and tram bogies. Train bogies are further divided to wagon and carriage bogies and engine bogies. A special ground is represented by special-purpose bogies, such as bogies for funicular railways etc.
Every bogie consists of several functional units. The basic part of the bogie is the frame to which the other parts are connected, such as:
The bogie may also include additional equipment such as:
In the area of bogie development the VÚKV a.s. deals with new bogie design (either separately or in the context of the whole railway vehicle development), adaptations, modernisation and reconstructions of all types of the currently operated bogies.
VÚKV a.s. offers its potential and experience in the following areas of bogie development:
Development works are often linked to experimental testing. Tests applied to bogies include static strength tests, fatigue and driving tests. All these types of tests are carried out by the VÚKV a.s. testing laboratory.