Infrared temperature measurement with zentrak

Hot wheels and hot boxes are a major threat for any railway operation, as are malfunctioning brakes. A hot box can lead to fractures of axle journals that might cause a derailment. Remarkable operational hazards are caused by locked brakes, due to overheated loosened wheel rims as well as broken wheel disks. A locked brake can cause fire and is one of the main reasons for the formation of flat spots. Additionally, not functional brakes can lead to very dangerous situations and significant wear and tear.
The Hot Box Detection, Hot Wheel Detection, Cold Wheel Detection and Sliding Wheel Detection are solutions to decrease the mentioned faults to guarantee a safe railway operation. Monitor reliably the temperature of axle bearing boxes, wheel rims and brake discs of passing trains up to 450km/h.

The configurable sensors are mounted in a hollow steel sleeper in the track. Up to 8 scanners are integrated as a modular plug-in unit and let the customer freely decide the scanning areas of bearings and brakes. The core piece of the sensor is a multi-beam infrared detector. The self-cleaning optic of the scanner unit guarantees a clear view all the time. The integrated high performance processing unit converts fast and exactly each measurement result to determine the temperature profile.

A 3D thermographic image of the scanned axles, wheels and/or discs is generated. With an adapted temperature measurement level, cold wheels are also detected. The sensor output signal is transmitted from the track to the electrical cabinet. Depending on the customer specified tolerance levels the operator will be alarmed directly. The transmission can be realized over several connections like modem, LAN, or GSM.