Railway Track & Structures - February 2009 - (Page 26)

Detect rail Sperry defects customers to view their rail test reports, as well as build user-deﬁned reports and conduct data mining. “The ability to efﬁciently examine trends and conduct in-depth analyses is important to railroads as it allows them to see trends and proactively manage responses to these trends,” says Markus Nottelmann, Sperry’s commercial director. “By combining the wealth of rail-ﬂaw data with other relevant data streams, customers are able to conduct correlation analyses and further reﬁne their decisions regarding rail change-outs and optimizing their rail-ﬂaw detection programs.” Nottelmann continued, “Railroads clearly want to conduct their rail-ﬂaw detection activities faster. Track access time is at a premium and railroads want rail-ﬂaw detection to be as transparent to their operations as possible. We are working with North American railroads to introduce Sperry’s unique Integrated Approach that we have deployed successfully in other parts of the world. Sperry’s Integrated Approach combines data acquisition with data analysis, reporting and trending, resulting in a more rational maintenance effort. The initial pilot programs in North America were successful and Sperry continues to work with its customers to reﬁne the process to incorporate North American operating conditions and regulatory requirements into the process.” Sperry has been asked by the railroads to develop surface crack detection tools to assist with the identiﬁcation of gauge corner cracking, rolling contact fatigue and head checking. “We are working on applications that will allow us to locate, identify and measure rail damage so that it can be addressed before it evolves into internal defects,” says Dr. Robert Crocker, Engineering Strategy and Projects director. “By combining Sperry’s seamless technology and integrated inspection approach to rail defect management, Sperry, with the help of its railroad customers, is moving rail defect management into a new era of proactive rail defect management rather than the old re-active process,” noted Alastair Veitch, Sperry’s director of engineering. quirements,” said Elbert.” Sperry celebrated its 80th anniversary in the rail-ﬂaw detection business in 2008 and continues its focus on improving detection technologies and operator analysis tools. Sperry introduced the X-Fire™ roller search unit in 2007 to identify defects under shells that, although hard to ﬁnd, can be very dangerous. Jeff Boyle, senior development engineer at Sperry, notes that customers are pleased with the X-Fire™ wheel because defects that once evaded standard ultrasonics can now be found. The company also continues to invest in its training programs and requires its chief operators to have ASNT Level 1 and Level 2 certiﬁcations. Sperry is also expanding its quality assurance programs to push further improvements in its operator development and performance programs. Sperry continues to develop and expand its Sperry Data Management System (SDMS), which the company describes as a sophisticated online tool that allows 26 Railway Track & Structures February 2009 www.rtands.com http://www.rtands.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Railway Track & Structures - February 2009

Railway Track and Structures - February 2009 Contents On Track Industry Today Supplier News AREMA News NRC News TTCI R&D Railroads Stepping Up Use of Technology to Locate Rail Flaws Rail Lubrication Realizing Great Potential M/W Challenges: Track Settlement at Bridge Approaches Supplier Profiles Products and Literature People Calendar Advertisers Index Sales Representatives Website Directory Professional Directory Classified Advertising Chicago Perspective

Railway Track & Structures - February 2009

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