The tamping unit that understands the ballast

Just like the sense of touch enables humans to handle objects according to their texture, “sensing” tamping tines enable the machine to treat ballast in an optimum manner. But how do you teach a tamping machine a sense of touch?

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The highly versatile machine for predictive maintenance

For the sake of economic efficiency, track construction and maintenance increasingly rely on a holistic approach that takes all relevant factors and parameters into account. The basis for this is high-resolution data of the individual track components.

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PredictiveTrackView

We are currently developing PredictiveTrackView, a comprehensive tool for track infrastructure operators. Its goal is to exhaust all possibilities Building Information Modeling (BIM) offers to make planning and performing sustainable maintenance measures and asset management as efficient and easy as possible - all thanks to the digital twin in the virtual space.

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Multichannel GPR technology detects munition remnants and other obstacles

Foreign objects in the ballast bed and track substructure, such as munition remnants, can significantly restrict or delay maintenance work. Metal detectors, magnetometers, and conventional GPR systems cannot reliably detect objects in the track bed. Thanks to our multichannel GPR technology with increased scanning density, a tomographic analysis of the track is possible and, by extension, localisation is much better.

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Radar: the "eye" of the machine

The word “radar” may make you think of air travel and parking assistants. But radars have also entered the field of railway, specifically in the form of ground penetrating radar (GPR), also known as georadar.

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El georradar: un salto tecnológico en la auscultación de superestructuras

En aras de la eficiencia económica, el mantenimiento de superestructuras ferroviarias se basa cada vez más en un enfoque holístico, que toma en consideración todos los factores y parámetros relevantes. La base para ello la conforman los datos de alta resolución de todos y cada uno de los componentes individuales de la vía. En este contexto, el georradar o Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) desempeña un papel esencial.

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Research developments for the urban rail

Traffic in tram, light rail and metro networks causes a variety of damage to the rail head. Mechanical stress results in scoring, corrugations, waves, and much more. For decades, preventive, or at least regular, rail grinding has been considered an effective countermeasure.

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ATMO silencia los carriles

El esmerilado de carriles contribuye a evitar ruidos no deseados, así como vibraciones y los daños derivados. Plasser & Theurer ha desarrollado desde cero una máquina esmeriladora de carriles para redes de tranvía y de trenes ligeros, que combina dos métodos de trabajo.

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How do the Dynamic Track Stabiliser and ballast interact with one another?

Does the Dynamic Track Stabiliser (DTS) have the potential to be more than a ballast compacting machine? Could it also be a measuring device for monitoring ballast compaction? An ongoing research project conducted by the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien) is examining these questions.

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Artificial intelligence for more efficient ground-penetrating radar analysis

Ground-penetrating radars measure the condition of track substructure. However, the analysis of this data is very time-consuming. Could the use of AI reduce this effort? Plasser & Theurer is part of a research group that took on the challenge of answering this question. They discovered that, among other things, a clever application of filters facilitates the analysis.

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WCRR 2019 Tokio: La vanguardia de la investigación

El primer congreso WCRR tuvo lugar en 1994 en París, gracias al impulso de una serie de grandes empresas constructoras. Desde entonces, el que probablemente sea el congreso profesional ferroviario más importante del mundo viaja alrededor del globo, y volvió a hacer escala en Tokio en 2019, por segunda vez desde 1999. Más de 1.000 participantes inscritos, 630 artículos científicos presentados y unas 300 conferencias celebradas a lo largo de cuatro días configuraron un programa de gran diversidad temática y notable profundidad técnica.

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Dynamic stabilisation of new track types in the laboratory

In her doctoral thesis Sophie Feurig focuses on a detailed analysis of dynamic track stabilisation in the laboratory. An in-depth understanding of the system behaviour of the ballasted track sparks not just her enthusiasm.

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Tracking ballast

Track ballast has many functions in the permanent way system. It is, amongst others, responsible for the load transfer into the subgrade, the drainage of the superstructure and the reliable position of the track panel. Even so, ballast is compared to other track components still a relatively unresearched area. With the use of the Discrete Element Method - a numerical calculation method for computing a large number of particles - and powerful computers it has now become possible to reliably determine the path of movement as well as the interaction of particles. Plasser & Theurer utilises this technology to gain new insights into the permanent way and so to optimise its track construction machines even further.

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EM100VT – The future of track inspection starts today

523 track kilometres, 224 turnouts, 80,000 sleepers and far more than 325,000 tonnes of ballast: These are the hard facts about the renewal of the high-speed line 1733 between Hanover and Würzburg.

Research Partner: Obermeyer

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