Rail

The global expansion of the high-speed rail network, increasing availability requirements, and stricter standards for maintenance are raising the demands on the safety and reliability of rail vehicles and infrastructure. At the same time, maintenance and inspection measures must be carried out cost-effectively to minimize downtime and ensure the availability of vehicles and components.

In particular, safety-critical components such as wheel sets, brakes, bogie frames, and rails are subjected to high mechanical stresses throughout their entire life cycle. Early detection of material defects, stress conditions, or damage enables condition-based maintenance and helps prevent unplanned outages and costly consequential damage. In addition to light and heavy maintenance, automated testing methods and continuous condition monitoring are therefore becoming increasingly important.

Fraunhofer IZFP supports manufacturers, suppliers, and operators in the rail industry with inspection and monitoring systems for routine and major maintenance as well as condition monitoring.

Automated testing systems make it possible to ensure compliance with quality requirements at an early stage, reduce the risk of failure, and optimize maintenance processes.

• Wheel set components,
• methods for surface and volumetric defect inspection, and
• stress detection

Our R&D services in the rail sector are specifically geared toward the supply industry in the context of the new production of wheel sets, rolling stock, and rails.

The focus is on

• surface and volumetric defect inspection of metallic components,
• stress detection, and
• the monitoring of brakes, bogies, and wheel sets.

In addition, solutions are being developed for the defect inspection of bonded joints (particularly insert bonding) and composite material mixed joints, as well as for production testing to detect pores, delaminations, impact damage, and fiber and fabric orientation.