Wheel Condition Monitor (WCM)
WHEEL CONDITION MONITOR
Wheel Condition Monitor is a combined Wheel Impact Load Detector and Weigh in Motion system operating at line speed that easily mounts to railway infrastructure without any cutting, welding or drilling.
The WCM provides information on wheel tread and loading conditions to help rail operators improve wheel life, bogie maintenance, and safety. It is an innovative and low-cost system with both wheel impact load detector (WILD) and weigh-in-motion (WIM) capabilities.
System Features
- WCM reliably detects a range of wheel tread defect and loading problems including:
- Flats, spalls, shelling, out-of-roundness
- High wheel impact loads
- Vehicle/axle overloading
- Poor vehicle/bogie loading (imbalance)
- Wheel unloading
- Sensors are modular and clamp to the rail with no requirement for track structure modifications. Benefits of clamp-on sensors are easy maintenance and quick installation often without interfering with normal traffic.
- Utilizes clamped-on load cells (load bars) and accelerometers to measure in-motion wheel/axle weights and wheel impact events.
- WCM provides users with real-time data of wheel tread defects and damage as well as asset weight/balance data.
- The WCM measures and reports the following:
- Wheel Impact Events
- Wheel Roughness Measurements
- Overload Alerts (Vehicle or Axle based)
- Imbalance Alerts (Vehicle Based)
- Once embedded within an operational network, the WCM system alerts the Network Controller when assets exceeding threshold are reported.
Specifications
| Capacity | Train length – unlimited |
| RF Tags |
Supports RF tagged vehicles (and visual imaging or virtual tagging) |
| Alarms | User configurable, impacts to five levels, loads to three levels, plus lateral imbalance to three levels |
| Resolution | 5mm spall detection (nominal) |
| Environmental |
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| Shipping Weight | Nominally 600kg |
