Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - DTD SYSTEM 2 (A disruptive innovation for the minisation of railway mantenance costs)

Teaser

Currently, European rail infrastructure managers spend yearly over €4.278 Million (from public funds) in track maintenance. Approximately 20% is spent in repairing railway track damages caused by the poor conditions of train wheels. In order to be really effective and have a...

Summary

Currently, European rail infrastructure managers spend yearly over €4.278 Million (from public funds) in track maintenance. Approximately 20% is spent in repairing railway track damages caused by the poor conditions of train wheels.

In order to be really effective and have a significant economic impact, both railway infrastructure managers and train operating companies are demanding a system that gives not just triggering alarms on faulty assets, but a tool that prevents damage on the tracks as well as severe deterioration of wheels, providing a clear and accurate plan in order to ease and optimize daily maintenance activities in train maintenance depots.

AMINSA has developed DTD SYSTEM, which allows to detect wheel defects at the onset of deterioration and uses this information to describe the best maintenance practices to maximise wheel life while minimising damage on track.

Our overall objective with the present project is to successfully introduce DTD SYSTEM in the rail transport market. As a result of exploiting this new product, we will be able to achieve our business objectives of strengthening our company’s reputation as provider of disruptive technological solutions for the railway sector.

Work performed

The total duration of the project is established in 24 months. This report includes the work and progress performed during the first 12 months. The project consists of 8 Work Packages (WP).
Their stage of development is shown below:

WP 1:

• Task 1.1: Definition of software features and requirements for DTD SYSTEM. Compliance estimate: 100%. Acccomplished: 100%. The result of this task has been the definition of software requirements, deliverable D1.1i.

• Task 1.2: Definition of hardware features and requirements for DTD SYSTEM. Compliance estimate: 100%. Actually accomplished: 100%. The result of this task has been the definition of the hardware requirements for the industrialized version of DTD SYSTEM, deliverable D1.1ii.

• Task 1.3: Definition of communication system requirements. Compliance estimate: 100%. Accomplished: 100%. The result of this task has been the definition of the communication system requirements of DTD SYSTEM, D1.1f.

WP 2:

• Task 2.1: Hardware system architecture improvement. Compliance estimate: 67%. Accomplished: 67%. The result of this task was the design and manufacture of an initial version of improved version, deliverable D2.1i and milestone M1.

• Task 2.2: Data transfer technology upgrade. Compliance estimate: 67%. Acccomplished: 67%. The result of this task was the design and implementation of an initial version of the improved communication system, deliverable D2.1i and milestone M1.

• Task 2.3: Manufacturing and Laboratory testing of the upgraded hardware unit and communication systems. Compliance estimate: 57%. Accomplished: 57%. The result of this task was the testing of the initial version data acquisition system with the improvements implemented, D2.1i and milestone M1.

• Task 2.4: Certification and CE mark of the product under European and worldwide regulations. Compliance estimate: 67%. Accomplished: 67%.

WP 3:

• Task 3.1: Service construction phase – Cloud Computing Platform. Compliance estimate: 67%. Accomplished 67%. The result of this task has been the design and implementation of the Cloud Computing Platform, D3.2i.

• Task 3.2: Web Application – User Interfaces. Compliance estimate: 67%. Accomplished 67%. The result of this task has been the design and implementation of the front-end of the platform. A powerful and easy to use Web application has been developed to provide information about defects, D3.2i and the milestone M2.

• Task 3.3: Testing. Compliance estimate: 100%. Accomplished 100%. The result of this task has been the development of the Cloud Computing Platform and the Web Application, D3.2i and the milestone M2.

• Task 3.4: Launching and fixation of errors. Compliance estimate: 25%. Accomplished 25%. The result of this task has been the initial launch of the developed platform and web application, which will allow for future testing and debugging to obtain the final version.

WP 4:

• Task 4.1: Registration of additional data needed to refine the predictive maintenance algorithm. Compliance estimate: 100%. Actually accomplished 100%.

WP 6:

• Task 6.1: Generation of an updated business innovation plan. Compliance estimate: 60%. Accomplished: 60%.

• Task 6.2: Industrial and Scientific dissemination activities. Compliance estimate 30%. Accomplished: 30%.

These tasks are simultaneously developed with the rest of the project during the next months of life, so this information must be updated according to the needs detected.

WP 7: D7.1.

• Task 7.1: Technical coordination. Compliance estimate: 50%. Actually accomplished: 50%

• Task 7.2: Administrative management. Compliance estimate: 50%. Accomplished: 50%.

• Task 7.3: Quality Monitoring and Risk Assessment. Compliance estimate 50%. Accomplished: 50%.

WP 8:

Analysis of the ethic requirements that the project must comply with.

• Informed consent procedures that will be implemented for the participation of humans.
• Procedures and criteria that will be used to

Final results

Nowadays, wheel maintenance is commonly a planned activity (PM) based on visual inspections of the wheel conditions and time/mileage maintenance practices. These intervals are based on earlier experience on rolling stock maintenance or on the supplier’s specifications, referring to overall usage time, distance covered or the amount of operations the systems have been exposed to. Manual inspections are still a useful way to monitor a system, but as the systems get increasingly complex, the need for objective and reliable methods of wheel condition monitoring increases.

At AMINSA, we react to the fact that the European railway industry is already trying to move from this generalized practice nowadays to a condition-based maintenance (CBM). Condition based maintenance using current Wheel Impact Detectors or WIDs monitors the actual condition of the asset but it is still the rolling stock manager who decide which maintenance activities needs to be done when certain indicators show signs of decreasing performance or upcoming failure. However, clients are asking now for more advanced remote wheel condition monitoring systems, that makes possible to prevent damage using a more predictive approach, and that even indicate to the user which are the correct maintenance decisions.
• Rail infrastructure managers (RIMs) want to obtain information about wheel state detection in order to identify those vehicles in poor conditions.
• Train operating companies (TOCs): By following the maintenance advice and indications of DTD SYSTEM (Predictive maintenance plan module), they will be able to perform predictive maintenance operations, leading not only to important maintenance cost savings (and issued penalties due to produced track deterioration) but also to a higher performance of their asset.
As developer of DTD SYSTEM, we aim to commercialise it becoming a technology based service provider to the worldwide railway sector. We will provide the design, installation, data management, analysis and reporting and technical assistance and support for successful operation of DTD SYSTEM in railway networks around the world. With this objective in mind, we will create a new department in the company focused exclusively in this new area of activity.

Website & more info

More info: http://www.aminsa.com/DTD2.html.