Method for designing freight wagons for use in industry and engineering teaching

Abstract

The transport of goods on the Brazilian railway networks has been growing over the last decades, reflecting growth in industries in this segment, including those related to the design of railway wagons. The general objective of this paper is to propose a method for designing railway wagons capable of developing the usual wagon models and meeting specific design demands, which can be applied in industrial environments and education. The proposed method combines practices identified in the literature on the design of railway wagons with traditional product development methods. It was structured in three phases: Informational Design, Conceptual Design, and Detail Design. The proposed method was evaluated by wagon manufacturers in Brazil and applied in teaching environments, demonstrating its feasibility. The method proposed for the design of railway wagons presented in this work has a high affinity with the practices adopted by the industry and is easy to apply in the academic environment, helping both in the training of human resources and in the execution of new wagon design projects.