Introduction

Sund & Bælt has the ambition to develop digital solutions and services which can be applied to improve the quality and efficiency of their day-to-day operations and maintenance. To better understand the switch durability.

Challenge

In accordance with Danish regulations, Sund & Bælt has prepared several procedures that should always be followed. These procedures are primarily based on safety demands. They are also based on an aspiration to preserve these switches for many years to come and minimize the need for repairs. Besides general maintenance, Danish regulations also demand inspections of switches bi-weekly. General maintenance and manual inspections are quite costly and time-consuming.

As a result, Sund & Bælt have identified a need for an automatic monitoring system for continuous monitoring of switches. They want a system that notifies them whenever there is a need for maintenance initiatives. Or when it detects irregularities on the switches.

Solution

Sund & Bælt wants to gain a deeper insight into the condition of their switches. They want to understand why and how it evolves over time and strategize their maintenance accordingly. They searched for a system that informs them whenever there is a need for maintenance and alerts them if any failures are detected on the switches.

They came across one of our solution, TrackSwitch³⁶⁰, which has been specifically designed for switches monitoring. We monitor the connection of the points, the switch position, and the speed at which it switches its position. We also monitor the temperature of the actual rail. Data from these sensors is automatically delivered to Railmonitor’s Digital Service Platform, offering real-time insights and triggering alarms if preset thresholds are exceeded.

The gathered information will then be compared in order to identify patterns that might suggest a negative development of the function of the switch.

Sund & Bælt believes that Railmonitor’s solution will provide them with valuable information on any safety-critical tendencies. It will give them a deeper understanding of the changes to the condition of the switches and their behaviors.

We expect that our solution will enable Sund & Bælt to highly optimize their maintenance strategy. This will result in significant cost reductions on repairs as well as increased safety overall.