The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) has chosen NEM Solutions to implement a Railway Wheel Wear Management Solution that will integrate advanced parameters capture and control as well as a holistic approach to the optimization of the life of the wheels.
NEM Solutions A.U.R.A wheel integrates different hardware measurements in an advanced platform that manages all the information and provides priceless knowledge to the maintenance staff. A.U.R.A wheel helps to identify the wear areas resulting from the contact area between wheel and rail. By achieving this, NEM Solutions helps to minimize the consequences resulting of a potential inappropriate contact between wheel and rail. This contact affects the performance and degradation of different assets that affect the overall life of the trucks.
At this initial stage (due for commission in spring 2012) NEM Solutions will supply WMATA with 4 Laser Profilers (portable handheld devices) to control the critical wheel wear parameters (flange height, flange width and qR factor). NEM Solutions Laser Profilers work in connection with a PDA through a Bluetooth connection, allowing for great ergonomics and freedom of movement.
Currently WMATA and NEM Solutions are discussing the best way to move forward in this project by adding hardware (like automatic wheel monitoring systems, surface defects detection systems), lathe communication and automatic asset traceability. Additional hardware like hot box detection systems will be discussed as well.
A.U.R.A. wheel guarantees a holistic approach to wheel wear management, centralizing all the information arriving from the shop floor or the mainline, managing the complete fleet and the list of depots (regardless of the location). Information is fed to the system to obtain precious knowledge that will allow WMATA to optimize their wheels’ life: wear rate, wear patterns, profile plotting, graphical profile comparison, next intervention date, end of life date, et.
NEM Solutions’ reference list in North America is steadily growing. In November 2011 the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) awarded NEM Solutions a contract for a Wheel Flat Detection and Reporting System, due for installation in Spring 2012. TTC’s solution will also be powered by NEM Solutions A.U.R.A wheel.
