Instrumentation

The Institute of Railway Technology has significant experience in the installation of in-line monitoring systems for trains, stackers and reclaimers. Instrumentation has also been carried out on bulk ore carriers, draglines, coal trucks and shovels.

Systems for measuring

• strain,
• deflection,
• acceleration (vibration),
• noise,
• temperature,
• acoustic emission (wear & lubrication),
• wheel, rail and weld profiles,
• ballast, sub-ballast and formation assessment,
• condition monitoring
• comprehensive range of data recording, analysis and computing equipment

- form the basis of the Institute's  instrumentation capability.

Permanent Installations

• Partially Dumped Ore Car Detector
  in service for last 2 years at BHPIO on the recently completed Car Dumper #3.

• Briquette Feed Bin weigh system
  Installed at Hot Briquetted Iron (HBI) plant.

• Wheel Impact Monitoring
  Marketed by Teknis Pty. Ltd. and installed at various state rail systems (NSW, SA, Qld) since 1992.

• Peak Load Detector
  in service at BHPIO for last 8 years to detect peak loads due to ore-car wheel tread irregularities.

Achieved Benefits

• Prototyped instrumentation resulted in optimised final installation.

• Improved maintenance scheduling.

• Improved production audit data.

• Condition monitoring of wheel fleet.

• Improved loading procedures.

• Improved process control.