During periodic inspections of railcars these aspects must be considered and an appropriate period set for each component.
The period for inspections that are similar in content are expressed together and points that are past that cycle should be carried out in the following inspection.
The inspection cycle standard is determined by the volume of operation load, the distance of operations (kilometers) and the time of service. When a certain amount of time has passed or a certain distance has been covered the inspection should be carried out.
ii) Railcar composition and conditions of use
Railcars have a relatively long useful life. However, since the reflect the level of technology of the period when they were manufactured, units that are in use now naturally reflect a degree of deterioration in composition, functionality and style as compared to state-of-the-art models. Older models exhibit overall inferiority to the present standard. Furthermore, among the same model, due to differences in conditions of use, different parts show different deterioration. For this reason it is important to devise an inspection cycle that meets the needs of each railcar according to composition, conditions and type.
iii) Inspection combinations and cycle
Periodical inspections are performed on a combination of 4 - 6 types of components. Among these are inspections that can be completed in a relatively short time and some which require a longer period. Repeatedly performed periodic inspections (or those determined by distance) should be done first, then inspections to be performed at the next fixed period, and then third level inspections and then finally more important and general inspections should be performed.
Fig. 1-4 shows the inspection cycles for representative models of each machine type.
