INDIAN Railways’ (IR) Central Organisation For Modernisation Of Workshops (Cofmow) has awarded Wabtec a contract to supply an Online Monitoring of Rolling Stock (OMRS) system. The system is part of IR’s “Smart Yard” initiative and will improve the availability of the railway’s fleet by detecting and addressing defects before they affect operation, preventing in-service failures.
OMRS is a wayside solution comprising Rail Bearing Acoustic Monitor (RailBAM) and Wheel Condition Monitor (WCM/Wild) to detect faults in rolling stock axle-journal bearings and wheels.
The RailBAM technology uses acoustic signatures from bearings to identify bearing defects in advance before they would be identified through human inspection. The WCM technology uses impact forces exerted by wheels on to the rail to identify wheel defects.
The OMRS systems enable operators to optimally plan the inspection and removal of defective bearings and wheels based on condition instead of fixed time-based inspection schedules.
Cofmow is managing the deployment of IR’s Smart Yards across the country. As part of the contract with Cofmow, Wabtec’s teams in Australia and India will lead the design, development, supply, installation, and commissioning of 97 OMRS equipment sets in various locations. The data from all the wayside OMRS systems will be fed into a Central Data Control Centre to be established in Delhi through the Wabtec Fleet ONE software.
