Rolling Railway maintenance to a Digital Destination In the rail industry time is valuable currency. SKF’s latest digital innovation is proven to extend maintenance levels and keep rolling stock rolling as much as possible. Condition-based maintenance (CBM), which involves measuring and monitoring parameters such as vibration and temperature to spot anomalies at an early stage, has been applied for a long time in many industries. The monitoring aspect is commonly known as conditioning monitoring.
availability.
Adoption of CBM is steadily growing thanks to significant innovations and the availability of technology. Digitalisation is making a major difference towards how maintenance is executed and can enable the customer to extend maintenance intervals. This can have beneficial Historically, the rail industry’s effects on, for example, train maintenance regime is to service availability. The less time rolling trains on a time or mileage basis. stock spends in maintenance, the Though this approach has been used successfully for many years, more time it can spend carrying passengers or cargo – this is it does not take account of important at a time when the whether parts actually need replacing. Inspection can only take sector is seeing increased pressures on demand. It can also place when trains aren’t running, help with reducing life-cycle costs and maintenance actions require and inventory management of rolling stock to be taken out of spare parts, due to the early service, or lines to be closed for warnings provided by condition extended periods. monitoring of any risks and possibilities of incidents. As such, maintenance costs remain one of the biggest SKF has combined CBM with its concerns for the industry, knowledge in bearings and other due to aging train fleets and the components and developed an increasing need for train 44
entirely rail-focused version of its highly successful Multilog IMx platform. This latest innovation combines rolling stock and track condition monitoring in a single, easily customised solution.
The Next Step in Train Digitalisation Multilog IMx-Rail is a multichannel, on-line condition monitoring system based on new rail-approved components. It is the next step in train digitalisation, allowing operators to implement condition-based maintenance that can help achieve goals such as TCO reduction, higher availability, the avoidance of unplanned stoppages and longer maintenance intervals. Available for OEM installation and as a retrofit solution, Multilog IMxRail offers advance warning of rolling stock rotating part issues on wheel bearings, gearboxes and motors, as well as data collection