Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Common Systems Used In Rail Track Inspection

By Essie Osborn


Many of the railway accidents result from poor railway maintenance. Over the years, the increased concern on how to reduce these accidents has led to development of various machines that are used when inspecting rails to check for faults to ease the repair work. There are various systems used in rail track inspection that people should know of.

Among the most common systems is the head checker that comes with certain mechanism that works to inspect rail edges for faults. The high-resolution digital line scan camera in the head checker enables it to check very small faults on the rails. These cameras work to capture and store information in certain database to ease the repair work.

Another common system is the joint checker that works to check for faults in the railway fish plates and joints. Joint checkers operate in very high speed that enables them to perfectly detect cracks on the fish plates and missing nuts or bolts. These checkers are mainly created to use a wheel encoder and digital line scan camera to inspect rails for faults.

Other popular structures are the digital crack checker recording systems. These devices have the ability to examine and evaluate the condition of the concrete sleepers and ballastless tracks. Many of them work under high speeds and can perfectly detect any crack structures in rails. The system also has a database where it stores the obtained data.

Other popular systems are the railway checkers that work to inspect rails to find out if there are any observable damages on the concrete sleepers. Many railway checkers are constructed with scan cameras and laser distance sensors that have the ability to check for damages on the rail sleepers and ballasts. These systems are created to operate at very speeds when examining and recording data.

Wire checkers are also available in the market and work using automated mechanisms to determine how thick railway contact wires are. Wire checkers most come with various components among which are the infrared laser light illumination system and a couple of high-speed linear cameras. People using this system are able to measure both small and huge measurements.

The use of the vegetation checker is also common when inspecting rails for damages. The vegetation checker is designed suitably to be used when measuring railway bed structures, track edges and areas. In most cases, this system is used to check railways for damages and record the results safely. This unit is created to operate speedily to create quick, accurate and safe results.

Another system available is the profile checker, which is created in such a way that people can use it to inspect the cross, and vertical sections of railways. Its design enables it to be utilized to measure the corrugation amplitude, gauge and profiles of the rails. Manufacturers fix this system with information checkers and data recorders to help enhance their performance. In some models of these systems, you would find high-tech mechanisms such as the distance sensors and scan cameras that improve their functionality.




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