Railway networks have to cope with increasing load and aging infrastructure. As maintenance needs get more frequent, manual inspections don’t suffice to detect them in advance. Switches are the most critical part of the rail infrastructure, causing approximately 20% of infrastructure-related delay minutes and costing €12bn a year globally to maintain and replace.
The KONUX system is an end-to-end solution which uses IIoT sensors and artificial intelligence to improve network availability, extend asset lifetime and reduce costs. It continuously monitors and analyzes the health of key switch components such as the track bed, and frog, and provides actionable recommendations. It ultimately allows for better maintenance planning by helping infrastructure managers anticipate failures before they happen and know the optimal time and type of maintenance needed.
The dashboard gives you a 24/7 overview of all your critical assets and their condition. Combining that with the operational importance of the asset, you can act on your key availability drivers directly from the comfort of the office.
In addition to current issues, our advanced AI core is also able to predict how the condition of switch components will develop in the next 90 days and notifies you when actions need to be taken. That allows you to plan better the timing of maintenance measures, such as tamping, or grinding a frog, for example. This way, you are in control of your maintenance needs and asset availability.
Always know your switch usage at a much more granular level to adjust the planning of inspections, maintenance, or replacement cycles. You can see which switches are being over- or under- inspected and take action.
Compare the impact of tamping, grinding and welding actions to find best practices and avoid repeat failures. Discover which maintenance actions were successful and for how long to determine the most economical and sustainable regimes.
Plan timely intervention and prevent more serious and costly damage to your frog, by detecting anomalies in the vibration data from the frog area of your switch.
"The insight to see how effective maintenance has been is key to optimize our maintenance measures."
Rolf Härdi
Chief Technology and Innovation Officer, Deutsche Bahn
Each of our internet-of-things devices can easily be deployed in the field in under ten minutes. They are autonomous and durable, with a battery life of four years. The sensors are mounted directly onto the track sleeper and continuously measure key parameters such as vibration and acceleration without disrupting regular traffic operation.
