Freight trains get connected, too
To withstand rough environments such as extraordinarily high and low temperatures, vibrations, humidity and dirt, railway technology is kept simple and sturdy. There is one thing freight cars are not: High tech. Connectivity so far has avoided freight cars and rail bound cargo transportation, with one of the reasons being the lack of sensors and power supply. Today, this is a bad disadtantage, but Bosch Engineering has announced intentions to close this gap. Tapping its rich experience in road traffic technologies, the company is now developing a connected condition monitoring system for rail transport. “Our automotive technology can be utilised in industry branches such as rail transportation”, explains Bernhard Bihr, general manager of Bosch Engineering. “Thanks to intelligent, connected sensors we can acquire real-time data from freight wagons and process them online. Thus, the wagons themselves recognise if the cold chain has been maintained and when a delivery will arrive at its destination. And en passant, the sensors also provide maintenance data about the freight wagons.
Currently, more than 300 freight wagons are equipped with the technology for test runs in Europe, North America and Australia. “With this system, we establish transparency in the logistic chain between rail, road and ship”, Bihr explains.
In road transportation, freight operators today know the exact location and arrivial time of any delivery. But while such features are standard in road transportation, rail transport is lagging behind. Since the freight wagons do not supply any kind of online data, traceability of goods on rails is rather cumbersome and difficult, though exact timing is crucial for the interplay of rail, ship and road and thus for efficient logistic processes. Bosch’s new rail freight status monitoring system comprises a connectivity hardware attached to the wagons that enables operators to determine the location of a freight car at an exactness of a bout one meter. Thus, it becomes possible to track and monitor rail transports, helping operators to improve logistics planning and deliver their goods on time.
The system monitors several parameters like temperature and shock. Temperature measurement is indispensible for food transport, since the cold chain must being guaranteed. If critical temperatures are detected, the system issues an alarm message to the control centre.
The three-axis shock and vibration sensors record intensity, frequency and exact position of impacts. Potential damage on freight wagon and cargo thus can been associated to the reason (for instance, during shunting operation). Freight operators thus con seamlessly verify the transport conditions.
The system will enter series production in mid-2016, Bosch said.
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