Real-Time Railway Bearing Monitoring

Vibration Energy Harvesting

Recently nominated as one of Europe’s top five wireless system design houses and manufacturer of short-range radio devices: LPRS is supplying their market leading easyRadio Advanced (eRA) wireless modules to Perpetuum Ltd, a global leader in vibration energy harvesting and sensor systems, for a sensor system which enables users to predict the failure of rotating components, wheel bearings and gearboxes on railway trains.

This new train monitoring system; provides operators with real-time data which improves reliability and safety; dramatically reduces operational and maintenance costs; reduces service disruption; and improves asset utilisation as operating conditions are monitored while trains are still in service and earning revenue.

eRA RF Transceiver Modules

LPRSs eRA400TRS wireless transceiver modules have been designed-in to the Perpetuum rail sensor systems to reduce cost, installation time and overcome the unreliability of hardwired systems having to operate in the harsh environment to be found underneath a train.

Perpetuum uses their key technology of vibration energy harvesting to power the sensor system utilising the excellent source of vibration that a train provides. This removes the problems of predicting battery life and the need for costly and logistically challenging replacement of batteries.

Long-Term Failure Prediction & Short-Term Monitoring

As rotating components degrade they show symptoms that indicate the progression of the wear. The initial symptoms are vibration, followed by noise, temperature increase, smoke and then failure. The eRA connected sensor system provides vibration data for long term failure prediction and temperature data for short term monitoring.