Perpetuum has secured an order from the UK’s Southeastern Railways to deliver wireless sensor systems for all 148 of its Electrostar trains.
The wireless sensor systems will help engineers in determining when maintenance is needed for trains by monitoring wear of the bearings and wheels.
Vibration data gathered from the trains by the sensor systems will be transmitted wirelessly to the company’s database, where software algorithms look for the signatures of bearing and wheel wear.
By using web based access maintenance, engineers can monitor the result of the analysis and use the data to view the condition of their assets.
The gathered data will help in rectifying isolated faults before they become a problem, thus improving reliability and safety, as well as reducing operational and maintenance costs.
Perpetuum CEO Steve Turley said the company’s wireless condition monitoring systems offer customers information that was not available before, allowing operators to look at maintenance in a different way and deliver material improvements for operators and passengers.
"There is no wiring and no need for batteries as the systems are equipped with our proprietary energy harvesters that convert the vibration of the train into power and all data is transmitted wirelessly," Turley said.
"This allows our customers to install the sensor systems with minimal disruption to their services."
Perpetuum’s Energy Harvesters provide the self-powered maintenance free wireless sensors to be equipped in a few minutes without the need for complex retrofit wiring. The order follows the installation of Perpetuum sensor systems on a number of Southeastern trains in 2012.
Southeastern Railways engineering director Wayne Jenner said Perpetuum’s product has been deployed on a trial basis on some of the company’s trains over the past year.
"We foresee a very rapid return on the investment and a solution to unlocking a number of important issues," Jenner said.
"The system has the potential to redefine the way we undertake some significant and costly elements of fleet maintenance."
Image: Perpetuum’s wireless sensor systems will help engineers determine when maintenance is needed for Electrostar trains. Photo courtesy of Chris McKenna.
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