Recently the two Swedish companies Railway Metrics and Dynamics and Strainlabs have entered into a cooperation agreement that strengthens the possibilities of predicting arising faults in trains.
Railway Metrics and Dynamics system platform uses several different types of sensors to predict faults in trains or tracks. The company has together with Strainlabs entered into a cooperation agreement that makes Railway Metrics and Dynamics’ predictions even more reliable.
About the collaboration agreement
Railway Metrics and Dynamics has developed a system platform for analysis and monitoring of infrastructure in real time – a system of systems that includes data from different types of sensors, for example weight sensors, trailer lock sensors and pantograph sensors. The heart of the system is the magnet-mounted sensor Performance Monitoring Unit (PMU), which registers the vibrations that occur when a train moves along the track. With the help of machine learning and AI, the PMU can – by analyzing changes in the vibration pattern – detect if a fault is about to occur in, for example, a train wheel or in the track.
Smart bolts from Strainlabs detect bolt preload and other relevant data from mechanical structures, including when the temperature starts to get too high – for example in wheel axles and bearings. Strainlabs System will be a strong complement to Railway Metrics and Dynamics system platform, which uses several different types of sensors to predict faults in trains or tracks.
Even better analyses in real time
With the new cooperation agreement between the two companies, Railway Metrics and Dynamics’ system solution becomes even stronger, when IoT bolts are installed in the axlebox on trains that are also equipped with PMUs. The bolts send their information to nearby PMUs, where the information from the bolts is analysed together with the data from the PMU.
Railway Metrics and Dynamics’ solution is incredibly innovative. Combined with our technology, a super strong solution is formed that will make a huge difference to the railway industry.
Csaba Madru, CEO of Strainlabs
With Strainlabs and Railway Metrics and Dynamics’ combined technology can, for example, derailments caused by thermal overload in the wheel axlebox be avoided. Strainlab’s IoT bolts can detect the increased temperature in thermally overloaded wheel axleboxes, while the PMU registers changed vibrations in them – either immediately when a derailment occurs, minimizing the infrastructure damage, and in the best case, before the derailment even occurs.
Strainlabs connected bolts are an extremely flexible solution. With the data from the bolts, another dimension of information is added to the Railway Metrics and Dynamics system solution, which opens up for even better analyses of the condition of trains in real time.
Jan Lindqvist, CEO of Railway Metrics & Dynamics
Facts
The two Swedish companies Railway Metrics and Dynamics and Strainlabs have entered into a cooperation agreement that strengthens the possibilities of predicting arising faults in trains.
