1. CONDEMNING CRITERIA
DEVELOPMENT FOR GLADHAND
LOCOMOTIVE HOSE ASSEMBLIES
CHARLES FERRIERA
LUKASZ KURCZAB
EVAN MCCUNE
PAUL SNYDER
YAN WU
FACULTY ADVISOR: DR. NORBERT MÜLLER
PROFESSIONAL ADVISORS
JAMES HOWELL, UNION PACIFIC
BILL SHEESLEY, UNION PACIFIC
2. SPONSOR BACKGROUND
• Union Pacific was established
in 1862
• Headquartered in Omaha,
Nebraska
• Total employees as of 2010:
42,884
• USA’s largest railroad
network consisting of 31,900
miles
• They ship a wide variety of
cargo including automobiles,
food, and coal
3. PROBLEM
STATEMENT
• Union Pacific has
expressed difficulty with
gladhand air hose
assemblies separating
during train operation.
• Unintentional separation
causes the emergency
brakes to be applied,
causing significant delay.
• The company would like
our design team to
investigate solutions to
decrease the frequency
of these separations.
4. • Due to the age of the rail
industry and operating life of
its components, the
gladhand design was to
remain unchanged.
• Development of a more
stringent condemning
criterion was proposed.
• If gladhand hoses that are
likely to fail are detected
before failure, they can be
switched and decrease
failure rate.
PROBLEM
STATEMENT
5. DESIGN SOLUTION
• Determine force required to separate
connection
• Lower pull-apart force = greater likelihood of
failure
Tensile Testing:
Documentation and Gauging:
• Gladhand age, type, gasket type, and go/no-go of
AAR gauges
• Correlate force data to parameters documented
6. RIG DESIGN
Basic Concept
1. Winch draws in tension
2. Hose assembly fails at some unknown
force
3. Load cell transfers force data to a Data
Acquisition System to be recorded
Frame Design
2x2 Square Tube Steel (12 gauge)
• Bending calculations performed to
ensure stability and safety
• Factor of Safety = 9.4 under 1000lbs
BA C D
8. RIG TESTING
Progression of Testing:
• Initially sampled random hose combinations
• Then, high and low force hose combinations and step
inputs
• Finally, performance fatigue test under 50 trials
14. CONCLUSIONS
• Year of manufacture had an inconclusive effect on
pull-apart force
• Hose assemblies are limited by the weaker of the
two gladhand hoses
• Gasket and gladhand type mismatches along with
gauge No. 26320 failures cause gasket
misalignments, therefore decreasing pull-apart
force
• Rapid fatigue testing showed a steady decrease in
separation force upon multiple couplings and
decouplings
15. RECOMMENDATIONS
• Implement gladhand quality inspection program
• Document installation/removal dates
• Physical deformation inspection
• AAR specification testing
• Install double wide gaskets on all gladhand hoses
• Avoid gladhand type mismatches, i.e. straight-15
degree
• Gasket reliability testing
• Guard arm crevice and bead documentation and
testing
