TÜV Rheinland's range of intelligent service concepts for rail transport is being expanded. Thanks to Condition Based Maintenance (CBM), rail companies can organize their maintenance intervals for rail vehicles and infrastructure more cost-effectively and in line with demand. The necessary prerequisite for this is created by sensors fitted to vehicles and infrastructure that measure the stress on components and provide condition reports in real time. In this way, components are not replaced according to predefined deadlines or proprietary maintenance concepts, but are renewed precisely when they are needed.
"Rail vehicles and the infrastructure in rail transport are highly complex systems with immense maintenance and servicing requirements," explains Markus Krippner, Division Manager at TÜV Rheinland InterTraffic, "This makes it all the more important for operators to ensure that both regular service and the necessary repairs run efficiently and cause as little downtime as possible. Technical interruptions should not occur at all, if possible."
CBM enables greater reliability and cost efficiency
TÜV Rheinland brings the requirements of rail transport down to a common denominator with CBM's condition-based, sensor-supported maintenance concepts. Companies can respond flexibly to maintenance needs and schedule them efficiently. Thanks to continuous monitoring, technical faults that are in the offing can also be detected at an early stage, short-term failures can be significantly reduced, and fleet availability can be significantly increased.
This results in another significant effect of condition-based maintenance, from which rail transport companies also benefit: Improved punctuality and fewer breakdowns due to technical faults detected too late increase customer satisfaction.
"We have a high level of technical expertise in condition monitoring, the recording of the condition of components. Now we are taking the logical next step and translating the measurement data into efficient, flexible and cost-saving maintenance concepts for our customers," says Markus Krippner. "Continuous monitoring makes it possible to use components in a targeted and safe manner until they reach their maintenance limit."
Modular CBM service
Rail transport companies benefit from the modular approach of Condition Based Maintenance in that all TÜV Rheinland services in the maintenance value chain can be put together according to specific requirements and needs. Starting with feasibility studies on a possible CBM introduction, through to condition recording including storage, wireless transmission of data, right up to automation and standardization of reports.
