by admin | May 1, 2020 | Uncategorized
Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start...rcm2 leader in innovation: OptRail project among winners of Innovate UK contest
rcm2 is delighted to announce that its project Integrated Optical Fibre Sensing (OptRail-PRO), is among the winners of the national contest 2020 First of a Kind (FOAK) competition in the category Optimised and cost-effective maintenance.
The project, as part of the First of a Kind 2020 Rail Innovation Programme, funded by DfT and delivered by Innovate UK, aims at the improvement and simplification of the maintenance of railway lines, reducing risks and costs.
The contest, launched by the Department for Transport, in partnership with Innovate UK, encourages innovation in the rail industry and aims with its funding to bring new technology into the railways to make them cleaner, greener and safer (as the UK leads the way to net zero carbon emissions) as well as more passenger-friendly, focusing on 4 categories: Customer experience, Environmental sustainability, Optimised and cost-effective maintenance, Optimised railway operations. On June 2020, it was announced that the final selection awarded 25 pioneering projects a share of £9.4 million.
Among the winners, OptRail represents a big innovative step ahead in the field of real-time monitoring: thanks to many years of experience in the railway sector, rcm2 is developing the application of novel fibre-optic sensing technology for continuous structural health monitoring of rail tracks, switches and crossing and automated maintenance planning.
OptRail is designed as a tool of great value for railway operators: besides its accuracy, it will be developed as highly resilient and collaborative system, equipped with advanced IoT communication, AI for automated decision support and risk-based inspection approach.
OptRail will be a great tool for public and private actors within railway industry, since it enables high precision with low installation cost: it optimizes the processes of risk based inspection and maintenance, improving the measurement of multi-point strain, displacement and temperature, as well as the accuracy of distributed sensing of stress state of the track. Moreover, OptRail will be a highly collaborative and multi-purpose platform since it allows to monitor, besides S&C defects for condition-based maintenance, the whole range of rail traffic parameters (axle counting, loading) with benefits not only for operators but also for users.
Indeed, despite being developed for industry operators, OptRail Pro has been designed starting from the concept “Putting Passengers First”, including objectives such as:
As result of the competition, rcm2 will be able to further proceed in its path to be at the forefront of technologies exported world-wide, since the grant lets the company to demonstrate the innovative prototype solution developed within the previous collaborative R&D project OptRail, funded by Innovate UK in 2018 (project reference 104246). OptRail-Pro represents thus the second step towards the development of a highly innovative solution on global scale, that will increase the efficiency of rail traffic and lower its risks, keeping costs low despite the very high accuracy of the data provided on a continuous basis.
rcm2 leader in the development of smart solutions for process improvement: The CraneScan project becomes reality
Thanks to many years of experience in the railway sector, rcm2 is developing the application of novel fibre-optic sensing technology for continuous structural health monitoring of rail tracks, switches and crossing and automated maintenance planning.
OptRail is designed as a tool of great value for railway operators: besides its accuracy, it will be developed as highly resilient and collaborative system, equipped with advanced IoT communication, AI for automated decision support and risk-based inspection approach.
OptRail will be a great tool for public and private actors within railway industry, since it enables high precision with low installation cost: it optimizes the processes of risk based inspection and maintenance, improving the measurement of multi-point strain, displacement and temperature, as well as the accuracy of distributed sensing of stress state of the track. Moreover, OptRail will be a highly collaborative and multi-purpose platform since it allows to monitor, besides S&C defects for condition-based maintenance, the whole range of rail traffic parameters (axle counting, loading) with benefits not only for operators but also for users.
OptRail will increase the efficiency of rail traffic and lower its risks, keeping costs low despite the very high accuracy of the data provided on a continuous basis.
rcm2 is delighted to announce that its project Integrated Optical Fibre Sensing (OptRail-PRO), is among the winners of the national contest 2020 First of a Kind (FOAK) competition in the category Optimised and cost-effective maintenance.
The project, as part of the First of a Kind 2020 Rail Innovation Programme, funded by DfT and delivered by Innovate UK, aims at the improvement and simplification of the maintenance of railway lines, reducing risks and costs.
Research and development is a continuous process at rcm2. A lot of attention is paid to the integration of resources and expertise in the development of solutions, for this reason over the years many rcm2 team successfully delivered projects dealing with innovative products development for several industries independently as well as within wider partnerships.
It is within this latter category that lies Project CraneScan, completed this month after two years of work.
CraneScan (Advanced structural health monitoring system for offshore cranes) is a collaborative R&D project funded by Innovate UK (project ref. 103613), dealing with an innovative, reliable, cost-effective structural health monitoring system (SHM) and carried on by a high-level expertise consortium, including top companies and research institutes across UK: rcm2 Ltd, N.D.T. Consultants Ltd, the Welding Institute, Sparrows Offshore Services and Nquiringminds Ltd.
The project aims at the development of an innovative solution for predictive maintenance of offshore cranes, that continuously monitors the crane remotely and automatically detects structural integrity failures before they lead to failures. It represents a very important tool for operators since cranes used offshore usually face heavy load operations up to 10,000 t and environmental challenges (e.g. wind, vessel motion) that increase the risk of structural failures. A structural failure of a large crane unavoidably lead to serious damages or total collapses, causing high financial losses and serious injuries and fatalities, as events such as the collapse on a platform in the UK sector of the North Sea in 2016 has shown.
Therefore, a constant monitoring of the condition of the cranes is essential, but current inspections, performed once or twice per year are dangerous, time consuming and expensive for companies.
It is on the basis of such needs that the CraneScan project was born, addressing key needs of the industry involved: to enhance safety preventing catastrophic and fatal accident and to reduce at the same time downtime, capital and insurance costs.
CraneScan demonstrates an innovative, reliable, cost-effective structural health monitoring system (SHM) that continuously monitors the crane remotely and automatically detects structural integrity failures before they lead to failures. If deployed to all cranes the system, now fully operative, would save the global crane industry €375 million annually and significantly reduce the failure of cranes by 25%.