CONDITION MONITORING
Catenary and pantograph monitoring catching snags before they bite Australian Rail Technology tells Rail Express about a pair of solutions helping reduce operators’ overheads by protecting their overhead.
W BELOW: The Pantograph Condition Monitoring System.
HEN A PANTOGRAPH atop an electric train, tram or locomotive snags overhead wiring, a large amount of damage can result to both the fixed infrastructure and the train itself. A train travelling at line speed can tear down a significant length of overhead wiring, costing the operator in many ways. “Tear downs of overhead wiring are a major issue to transport operators,” Australian Rail Technology (ART) National Sales Manager Darren Will says. “They can create a dangerous situation for
people inside and outside the rollingstock, greatly disrupt the operation of the network. and require emergency call out of repair resources. Additionally, there can be operational penalties as well as the cost of employing buses to ferry passengers around the impacted part of the network.” ART provides a range of rollingstock, engineering, infrastructure and condition monitoring products and services. Among them are a pair of solutions to reduce tear downs.
Pantograph monitoring The Pantograph Condition Monitoring System (PCMS) is installed above the railway to automatically scan the condition of pantographs as they pass underneath. The process occurs without any contact between the system and the rollingstock itself: as the vehicle passes through the scan location, the system assesses wear on the pantograph head, and scans for any chips or damaged areas. The system can measure carbon thickness, carbon damage (e.g. missing carbon, edge chips, abnormal wear and cracks), pantograph head yaw angle, missing horns, horn alignment, uplift force and train speed, with real time analysis reported back to the asset owner. Exception reports can then be viewed in client software, and also sent
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ISSUE 6 2019 | RAIL EXPRESS
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