Rail & Heavy Machinery

Rail Industry and Heavy Machinery

We have a wide range of Physical and Electrical Sensors, Electrical Circuit Interfaces, Instrumentation and Data Acquisition for the Rail Industry and Rotating Machinery.

• Development & Certification Testing
• Sensing Components; Speed, Pressure, Acceleration, Angle, Position, Vibration, Distance, Force, Torque, …
• Test benches, Structural Testing Rigs & Railway Track Monitoring
• Operation Monitoring & Maintenance Tools
• High Voltage and Current Transducers for Rolling Stock and Traction Power Substations
• Voltage Presence Devices (VPD) for detection of min/max voltage with relay output 
• Rolling Stock speed sensor output duplication capability ( to SIL3 )

Rail Vehicle, Traction Power Substation and Trackside Measurements

Communication Bus interfaces to other devices for synchronized Data Collection:

• CAN bus, IPT.COM, EtherCAT, MVB (Multi-Vehicle Bus) and Programmable module for customized interfaces

ECU protocols in available:

• J1939, CCP, KWP 2000, XCP, Diag on CAN, GMLAN, OBD, UDS

Passenger Ride Comfort Testing according to industrial standards, UIC 513, EN 12299 and JIS E4023

Vibration Sensors from DC to 10kHz and Seat Tri-axial Accelerometers

https://www.a-tech.ca/Product/Series/2676/VM-Body_Whole_Body_Vibration_Measurement_Software/?tab=3 

Facility Testing Instrumentation

Facility Testing that utilizes similar Hardware and Software to that of the vehicle Data Acquisition, providing Correlated Data between the Field Data collected and the Facility Data collected. The same input amplifiers, filters and sample rates on the Hardware and the same data processing and data analysis Software.

Examples of the Facility Testing:

• Climatic Testing of HVAC in Climatic Chambers
• Aero-Dynamics Wind Tunnels
• Braking Systems Dynamometers
• Tilt Systems Test Rigs
• Engine Test Cells
• System Endurance Test Rigs
• Structural Strength Load Testing and Fatigue Life Testing

Gas, Diesel and Turbine Engine Testing, Sensors, Instrumentation and Controls

Strain Gauge Measurement capabilities on Rail Cars, Bogie and Tracks

Speed or Frequency Signal Isolation and Duplication

Safety-related signals from existing circuits can be duplicated without interaction and can be transmitted to another subsystem.  The absence of interaction is designed to be functionally safe and achieves SIL 3.

Pulse frequency measurement of speed sensors and rotary encoders for safe detection of the speed with galvanic isolation and conversion into standard signals, measuring ranges: 0 … 500 Hz to 0 … 20 kHz.

Closed Loop Control of Loading Actuators – Single and Multi-channel, Control Logic illustration shown:

• Synchronized Multi-channel Control with Ramp, Sine, etc. transition
• PID and Velocity parameters
• Alarms and Exceptions to supervise the test sequence
• Control functionality such as Variable Execution Rate, Soft Start, Fade in & out, Conditional Hold, etc.

Structural Monitoring of Track and Bridge Loading as well as equipment durability

Voltage & Current Measurements - new housing, specifically designed for rolling stock

Electric as well as diesel-electric locomotives and multiple units (EMU/ DEMU) require multifold monitoring and control of electric energy. Voltage and current sensors used for this purpose need to meet the special demands posed by railway operations.

Of particular concern are fire and smoke protection, electrical safety, as well as robustness towards extreme environmental conditions, mechanical stress and EMI influences.

• 4800 V AC/DC protection up to PD3,
• 16 kV AC test voltage
• Voltage measurement up to 4800 V with calibrated switching of measuring ranges
• Overload-protected current mea­surement via shunt resistor from amps to kiloamps
• Low measurement error < 0.1 % meas.val. + 0.1 % f.s.
• Floating output signal, selectable: 0/4 ... (±) 20 mA, 0 ... (±) 10 V, optionally 0/4 ... (±)10 V, and additional monitoring output
• Integrated broad-range power sup­ply (16.8) 24 ... 230 (253) V AC/DC

The P50000 transducer series was specifically designed for applications on locomotives and multiple units for short circuit recognition, monitoring and control of traction motors and converters, auxiliary converters, accu­mulator batteries and others. A brand new feature is the flexibility provided by switchable measuring ranges and an integrated broad-range power supply.

Comprehensive certifications and con­formity with railway standards make the devices the ideal choice for railway applications.