It is very important to accurately assess the actual strength of axles to make them both adequately safe and lightweight. Due to test equipment limitations, fatigue testing on actual axles has been conducted under fixed amplitude loads. However, the loads on actual cars constantly fluctuate, and it would be difficult to say that actual conditions have been recreated in those tests. Therefore, a new tester, capable of simulating variable load conditions closer to actual operation, was introduced in 1995 to replace the conventional fixed -load rotational bending fatigue tester.

With the increasing speed of trains, the need to investigate high-speed braking performance of brake disks for railway applications has increased. Therefore, we introduced a high-speed brake test machine in 2001 in addition to our conventional tread and disk brake test equipment. In addition to brake testing at the equivalent of up to 600km/h, this machine also handles basic brake performance tests and durability tests, as well as run-curve test conditions similar to those in an actual car, with controlled brake torque and deceleration rate.

High-speed railway systems such as the Shinkansen have drawn attention from the viewpoints of environmental and energy issues. At the same time, much higher speeds are being pursued. The bogie spin testing rig has rotating rail-wheels that correspond to rails, on which a load frame, which corresponds to an actual car body, is set. This allows the various problems that arise when a railcar is running at high speeds, such as running instability, to be worked out in advance.

Railcar bogies must meet extremely high standards. It is also important that they are lightweight. Using the bogie fatigue tester, we can conduct strength assessment tests to check long-term serviceability by applying repetitive loads that simulate actual usage conditions of real bogies.