Wabtec continues to provide a range of solutions to help manage today’s challenging transport and asset maintenance environments.
Railroads worldwide face a common challenge: how to maximise the operational availability and reliability of rail assets while minimising costs.
For every trip a locomotive makes, there are hundreds of variables which, if not maintained properly, can reduce fuel efficiency, shorten maintenance intervals, degrade asset life, or even bring the operation to a complete halt, resulting in costly network delays and service interruptions. Wabtec understands the critical importance of keeping rail assets in motion.
Wabtec delivers the next generation of automated rolling stock and infrastructure monitoring, inspection, and maintenance optimisation through its KinetiX Inspection Technologies (KinetiX), which provides a range of wayside solutions facilitating the automated and proactive monitoring of rolling stock condition.
KinetiX produces data that can be analysed and processed to assess rolling stock condition ranging from full train inspection down to component level, enabling operators to improve asset performance, reduce maintenance costs and minimise operational delays.
Rather than the traditional railway process of relying on periodic inspections of locomotives and rail car assets to ensure optimal performance and safety of the fleet, KinetiX delivers the most comprehensive suite of AI-driven technologies.
It combines machine vision systems and line scan technology for high accuracy; Bayesian image processing to create rich 3D models; acoustic and vibration sensors to detect degradation and changes; as well as infrared technology to identify thermal anomalies.
Wabtec’s technology has quickly established a proven performance even in the harshest rail environment. With around 400 installations worldwide, KinetiX has become the industry benchmark asset inspection and analytics solution for freight, heavy haul and transit applications.
As the world’s foremost rail technology company, Wabtec has pioneered products and services for more than 150 years to drive transformation and sustainability in the rail industry.
The company combines decades of industrial leadership with cutting-edge software and digital technologies to create an efficient, productive, and reliable transportation ecosystem. Its innovative and efficient product portfolio and digital intelligence solutions provides railroads with the efficiency needed to help industry and communities to achieve their sustainability goals.
Wabtec Senior Regional Vice President, South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand, Wendy McMillan, says Wabtec’s portfolio of digital intelligence products is enabling greater capacity across all rail networks, allowing additional freight to move by rail as opposed to trucking, which is less efficient.
“Decarbonisation is a priority for Wabtec, and our technologies provide a pathway to meeting our carbon reduction goal. Our digital intelligence solutions are key to helping our customers meet their productivity and performance targets as well as their ESG commitments,” she said.
“Wabtec prides itself on leading the charge to create safer and more efficient rail networks across Australia, New Zealand and South East Asia, and digital intelligence plays a major role in that.”
Another crucial offering in Wabtec’s digital intelligence suite is a complete turnkey-hosted, back-office solution for I-ETMS-based Positive Train Control systems. This solution provides all the components necessary for short line and commuter railroads to implement and maintain their PTC systems.
An important component of the turnkey system is the One Help Desk — a single point of contact to answer questions, troubleshoot and find solutions for issues within PTC systems.
The technology helps to avoid the need to coordinate among multiple vendors to find and resolve issues. It also delivers safety and efficiency in the rail and transit industry.
Wabtec Group Vice President – Digital Intelligence, Rajendra Jadhav, said the company’s PTC solution provided a robust path for customers to meet their project schedule and goals.
“With the technology’s impressive track record in the rail industry, it helps advance the rail industry’s vital safety mission,” he said.
Digital intelligence is also the foundation and cornerstone of Wabtec’s Digital Mine, a leading provider of innovative mining solutions. The company recently announced it had received a series of orders for 3500 of its new Generation 3 Collision Avoidance System from three major global mining companies.
The Gen 3 CAS offered a range of class-leading and unique advanced capabilities, including predictive beam curving, context-based definitive voice-based alerts, real-time self-test, superior accuracy via ultra high precision global navigation satellite systems, and the most advanced rules and intelligence engine in the industry.
Wabtec Digital Mine’s Gen 3 CAS incorporates a brand new, cleaner, simpler user interface with context-based voice alerts that have been built using the latest human factor design., enabling operators to work without distraction and respond instantaneously to audible alerts.
The new system will drive performance and safety improvements at customers’ mining operations, with the recent orders demonstrating Gen 3 CAS’s value and rapid market adoption in just a few months since it was launched to the market.
“Wabtec is committed to bringing the best innovations to every customer we serve,” McMillan said.
Visit Wabtec at stand 311 at AusRAIL PLUS 2023.