PLR Prüftechnik Linke und Rühe, a subsidiary of Goldschmidt, has been awarded a contract by Berlin Transport Authority (BVG) to supply a rail inspection vehicle with combined testing, measuring and analysis technology.
The rail inspection vehicle will be used to record and evaluate rail condition on the 150km Berlin U-Bahn metro network which has around 400km of track. Data gathered will be used to assess operational safety and as a basis for planning corrective and preventive maintenance.
The vehicle will have an ultrasonic inspection system to detect and evaluate rail fractures, cracks, and other internal irregularities. An eddy current testing system will evaluate surface cracks, while a geometry measurement system can used to measure longitudinal and transverse profile as well as track gauge. There will also be a video inspection system to detect defects on sleepers or rail fastenings.
"The inspection vehicle for BVG will be the first vehicle of its kind for a local public transport company that records the condition of the infrastructure so comprehensively, all on just one single vehicle,” says Mr Stefan Damm, head of the field inspection solutions business at the Goldschmidt Group. “Results are analysed with support of artificial intelligence and documented automatically. We are pleased that BVG, as a pioneer, is taking this step towards an integrated application of state-of-the-art inspection and measurement technology together with Goldschmidt."
"We see this as proof of our strategy aimed at offering all systems from a single source and to integrate them on various vehicle sizes, depending on individual customer requirements,” says Dr Georg Friberg, CEO of the Goldschmidt Group.
