Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - VA-RCM (Innovative Product for train door condition monitoring based on vibration analysis algorithms)

Teaser

Project BackgroundTrain doors prove to be a critical element with respect to both maintenance cost and cause of train delays. Door actuator defects are the most common found, especially in older trains where door malfunctions amount to 25%-50% of the rolling stock defects. To...

Summary

Project Background

Train doors prove to be a critical element with respect to both maintenance cost and cause of train delays. Door actuator defects are the most common found, especially in older trains where door malfunctions amount to 25%-50% of the rolling stock defects. To overcome this, a consortium led by German SME Hitex have come together with the aim to rapidly seize the business opportunity presented by commercializing the VA-RCM system.

Social Impact

As trains are the most economic mobility solution win both urban traffic and mid-distance travel there is an extremly high public interest to keep them all - safe, available and affordable. Both key elements are addressed by the Project increasing safety by predictive mainentenance and avoid incidents. Secondly to allow operators to avoid high defect costs and thus keep availability high followed by effecitve economics.
It is crucial to reduce rail operational costs as well as to increase the reliability of service, especially in terms of punctuality. A recent report states that the most important factors governing passengers’ preference with respect to rail transport are cost and punctuality. Moreover, growing dissatisfaction is a major problem, as proven by a survey showing that 30% of passengers in the EU are not content with punctuality and reliability.

Project Objectives

VA-RCM constitutes a total solution for train door condition monitoring, enabling condition based preventive maintenance directly out-of-the-box. The sophisticated analysis algorithms will be part of the embedded software running on the VA-RCM hardware modules.
As a result, the system will require minimal effort to setup and no programming experience for successful operation. Most importantly, VA-RCM’s technology will be an enabler of condition-based maintenance schemes. Its defect detection software does not rely on secondary sensorial data such as door opening/closing speed. It moves one step beyond by using vibration analysis algorithms to investigate the power distribution over the frequency spectrum of the signals obtained through an integrated accelerometer. This way, VA-RCM is able to detect defects as they develop, before they are traceable through secondary effects such as door motion slowdown. This is significant as such secondary effects may only arise after severe damage to the door mechanism has already occurred.

Work performed

The entire work is divided into 5 workpackages accompanied by the continuous consortium management, coordination and risk management.

The project VA-RCM is based on available prototype algorithms and acquisition hardware with the aim to be able to industrialize the system with respect to hardware, casing, software and algorithms. Another key element is the market commercialiasition and proper dissemination.

The structural work divides into
– Commercial version finalisation
– System validation and demonstration
– Product certification
– Dissemination, advertising and commercialisation
– Pre-launch preparation

For the commercial version measurements have been performed on actual train doors, intermediate acquistion means have been designed and the final hardware and casing development has started with early versions available and in use for further testing. The algorithmic work has been continued and focssed on the actual hardware solution and train mounting environment. A graphical user interface has been developed and will be the base for operator use

With these prerequisites system validation is in full progress with real train mountings and experiments.

Dissemination is started with web presence, press releases and trade fair participations.

Final results

Until project end the final version of hardware and software will be available and validated in real operating environment. Certification for commercial use will be performed and market launch prepared.

Website & more info

More info: http://www.va-rcm.co.uk.