Vossloh succeeds in flagship project for data-based switch monitoring in Sweden

Vossloh achieves substantial progress on the trend-setting order for data-based condition monitoring of switches in Sweden. The multi-year order which was awarded by Trafikverket two years ago covers a total of 1,000 switches in the Swedish network. The aim is to avoid unplanned downtime due to switch malfunctions, increase efficiency of maintenance work and thus significantly boost track availability.

The solution basically monitors the displacement of switches via the movement of the bearer combined with speed measurement as well as a train recognition algorithm. Vossloh has now successfully completed validation of the performance of the sensors, gateways, cloud applications and algorithms. The validation was performed using data of over 4000 train passes to test the reliability of the solution and the accuracy of the algorithms under real conditions. This marks an important technological milestone and is a crucial step to enable Trafikverket in permanently monitoring their railway switches and to avoid unanticipated shutdowns.

“This great achievement is a further major step towards predictive maintenance and maximized track availability which is a key prerequisite for shifting more traffic to rail”, says Oliver Schuster, CEO of Vossloh AG, adding: “The great progress we have made in the project is based on our unique understanding of the rail track as an entire system combined with our steadily growing digital expertise. This will enable us to add further increased value to our customers.”

Pierre-Henri Bougeant, Head of Digitalization of Vossloh AG, says “This tremendous achievement by our engineering team demonstrates our extensive railway expertise combined with our digital skills and our transparency mindset with our customer.” He adds “We will now focus on the operational phase to roll out our highly reliable solution. In parallel, we will work to continuously add further functionality to the application in order to support Trafikverket in the best possible way.”

The development phase of the project was successfully carried out jointly with DB Systemtechnik GmbH, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn AG, and a range of partners including Sensorfy. The rollout will start in January 2023.