THE RAILTEK TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANTAGE
INTRODUCTION TO WILD
technology
RT3000 ™ WHEEL FAILURE DETECTION SYSTEM
Railtek Systems has developed the next generation patented maintenance free WILD detector reducing the sensor footprint by as much as 90% while increasing accuracy and eliminate all blind zones.
RT3000 ™ advanced wheel failure detector.
RT3000 ™ is our revolutionary new WILD wheel failure detection device - the worlds most compact maintenance free wheel failure detector. - only from RailTek Systems.
The system can be configured with bolt on rail sensors or laser based for galvanic isolation sensing.
The RT3000 built-in powerful wireless web server provides for easy access to setup and viewing of wheel impact data logs.
RT3000 ™ advanced WILD wheel failure detector.
W I L D FAILURE ANALYSIS
The traditional rail wheel failure detector used to rely on the WILD wheel impact load detection principle using a very large array of strain gage sensors to detect wheel defects by measuring load impacts such as wheel flat spots, out-of-roundness, polygonization and spalling as oulined in the diagram below. There must be a better way.
Above is an example of a typical traditional WILD system, in this instance 20 sensor channels per rail for a total of 40 sensor points spanning an enormous distance of 20-30 meters.
Since cyclical impacts cannot be predictably aligned with current WILD sensor arrays, manufacturers of these systems seems to rely on expanding (duplicate) the sensor array to such a large number that hopefully all potential impact criteria might be covered. This vast increase in the sensing array increases cost, complexity and periodic calibration and still poses the risk of missing cyclical wheel impacts due to the so called blind zone phenomena associated with this type of technology.
This blind zone problem (area of no detection) can be illustrated by looking at the mechanical load dynamics as used in most WILD implementations.
As illustrated in Fig1 each WILD sensor has its center of calibration point W at location C and supporting points G on either end. At location B, D the measured weight will only be half the calibrated weight. At points A, E the measured weight will be zero. Thus the only valid point of measurement will be at point C. Since wheel impacts are cyclical in nature there is a very small chance for the impact point H, on the wheel to be aligned such that its impact will be at point C – thus the potential for under reporting wheel impact impulses are substantially large on WILD systems.
In order to overcome the limitations of the weighing method used by WILD systems, manufacturers of WILD systems attempt to solve the problem by extending the number of WILD measuring points with the hope that a carefully spaced array of sensor will cover all wheel impacts as outlined in Fig.2
In Fig.2 below we demonstrate the potential for a wheel E with impact defect D to miss calibration points A,B or C on strain sensors H. The diagram shows three strain gauges H with anchor support pillars F cross ties
Wheel impacts outside the calibrated points A, B and C will still under report the real magnitude of the wheel impact or possibly not at all.
Illustrated in Fig.3 below, traditional weigh sensor WILD systems also suffer from an unavoidable non-linear cross coupled distortions on adjacent sensor cells that will interfere and distort the output signals. This cross contamination next to blind zone phenomena are the two main factors that make these systems produce poor results. In addition, the constant movement of the track makes each cross tie settle at different levels causing the carefully calibrated cell to become completely out of spec.
Fig 3
THE SOLUTION
Railtek Systems has developed a patented, highly accurate (zero blind zones) wheel impact detection system that is low cost, low maintenance, portable, yet very accurate and effective in detecting faulty rail car wheels in real time, in such a way that the wheel impact event can be synchronized with the rail car information in order to effectively identify a rail car containing the faulty wheel.
Railtek Systems next generation technology is a vast improvement in both cost and performance over old WILD technology providing a modern small footprint and maintenance free technology that gets the job done.
To
the new
From
the old
Since the RT3000 WILD sensor is capable of measuring the instantaneous impact point of a faulty wheel, this information can be used to synchronize the impact event with the rail car number by triggering, for instance, a high speed camera at just the right point in time, using AI to tag the wheel of interest on the image itself
RT3000 ™ is our revolutionary new wheel failure detection device - the worlds most compact maintenance free wheel failure detector. - only from RailTek Systems.
The system can be configured with bolt on rail sensors or laser based for galvanic isolation sensing.
The RT3000 built-in powerful wireless web server provides for easy access to setup and viewing of wheel impact data logs.
