High speed diagnostics for high speed railways

At the end of 2018, the test operation of Eurailscout rolling stock, equipped with TVEMA’s high-speed diagnostic equipment, began on the French railways.

The installation was carried out by TVEMA representatives and EURAILSCOUT France specialists. On the test unit were installed:

The kit includes:

- a system of high-speed flaw detection of rails with the EKHO-KOMPLEX-3 flaw detection complex, which makes it possible to apply a new control technology that drastically reduces the influence on the results of side factors and overcome the velocity barrier previously unattainable for ultrasound;

- a system of overview and technological video monitoring of objects of the railway infrastructure "SVOD", consisting of four linear cameras, providing a clear, detailed image of VSP objects;

- a positioning system with the possibility of using an onboard GPS antenna as a source of information on the location of defects.

Testing the performance of our products for compliance with the European standard took place in stages:

- at the first stage, all equipment and systems were tested on a specialized section of the track with a lot of artificial and natural defects, with a calculation of the probability of 100% of their detection. This task was brilliantly performed with 100% defect detection.

- at the second stage, tests were carried out on the section of the path with natural defects at a working speed of up to 120 km / h. At this stage, arrows, various types of joints and other elements of the path were detected by our equipment without reducing the speed of work. Thus, if earlier the speed of the ultrasound control of a diagnostic train was 60-70 km / h, now the diagnostic speed starts to catch up with the maximum speed of the rolling stock of railways.

This year, the next stage of the joint project was launched. Upon completion of another series of tests in the first quarter of 2019, the French side will decide on the further operation of our equipment on its roads.

It is worth noting that the results of the tests already carried out impressed our partners. They especially appreciated the software that allows for convenient management of systems, as well as the combined processing and evaluation of data from both ultrasonic and optical systems. Highly functional software synchronization of both systems ensured high test accuracy during test drives.

Also, the French colleagues noted the software and hardware capabilities of the multichannel flaw detection system ECHO-COMPLEX-3 and the quality of its measurements. For the first time in the practice of European ultrasound studies, the need for manual adjustment of sensitivity was eliminated. This function is now performed automatically in the entire range of operating speeds, which greatly simplifies the work of the operator during travel.

The importance of a joint project with the French is hard to overestimate. After all, if our equipment comes to the court of one of the world leaders of high-speed railways, then good prospects will open up for the introduction of our products onto similar routes of other, not only European, countries.