WILD (Wheel Impact Load Detector), is an unmanned intelligent trackside data acquisition system that measures the dynamic impact load of wheels on the track at a very early stage and thereby protect the Rail Infrastructure, avoid derailments and catastrophic failures. WILD is also to reduce service failures and unplanned maintenance cost of Rolling Stocks and Tracks. WILD system helped to reduce the railway maintenance cost significantly by identifying the damage causing wheels for quick removal. Out of round wheels produce very high impact loads which result in normally imperceptible damage. Such impact loads sustained over long term leads to premature failure of rail, wheel, bearings etc. With rising axle-loads the severity of this type of damage increases.
WILD records load of all wheels passing over the instrumented rail and these loads may be normal wheel loads or loads coming on rails due to many possible defects in rolling stocks. These defects are not necessarily always flat tyres, as is normally understood. Various possible causes for heavy loads are wheel flats, shelling marks, out of roundness of wheels, suspension problems, misalignment of bogies etc.
Besides detecting wheel defects the functions are used as a dynamic rail scale at the same time; vehicle weight and load distribution are monitored during every passage and an unbalance or overload can be recognized in time. Assistance for optimal payload usage is available as well.
The experts pinpoint the actual defects in rolling stocks and the reasons for such heavy loads, as being recorded through ‘WILD’. If these are left undetected can cause bearing failure wearing of other components, damage thousands of miles of track of cause derailments.
WILD scan millions of wheels per day throughout the international rail industry.
Impact load occurs on rail when a defective portion of wheel falls on rail head. Impact load is transferred to rail head from wheel through combination of any or all of the following defects like-
WILD (Wheel Impact Load Detector), is an unmanned intelligent trackside data acquisition system that measures the dynamic impact load of wheels on the track at a very early stage and thereby protect the Rail Infrastructure, avoid derailments and catastrophic failures. WILD is also to reduce service failures and unplanned maintenance cost of Rolling Stocks and Tracks.
In addition, the sensors are able to identify the source of a sound by the use of advanced algorithms to distinguish between train and environmental noise. Each bearing type is identified by the use of an Automatic Vehicle Identification system. Detected defects are assigned to bearing components like cups, cones or rollers. For each train passage defects are tracked and ranked according to customer defined tolerance levels.
WILD (Wheel Impact Load Detector), is an unmanned intelligent trackside data acquisition system that measures the dynamic impact load of wheels on the track at a very early stage and thereby protect the Rail Infrastructure, avoid derailments and catastrophic failures. WILD is also to reduce service failures and unplanned maintenance cost of Rolling Stocks and Tracks.
