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2/26/2016

Railway Equipment Co.: Remote monitoring for predictive maintenance

The RRAMAC Connected Systems remote monitoring and control technologies from Railway Equipment Co. helps rail customers reduce service response time, diagnose and eliminate many failures, and reduce operating costs through remote connectivity.

When a critical alarm occurs, maintenance personnel are automatically notified via a text or email with a detailed description of the issue. A link to the asset via a Web browser or smartphone app can provide root-cause information leading up to the failure, as well as a camera view of the site. This allows maintenance to bring the proper tools and replacement parts to fix the problem with a single site visit. In some cases remote connectivity will allow the problem to be fixed remotely without a service trip.

Many equipment failures are preceded by changes in vibration, motor current, or bearing temperature. By monitoring these variables over time, RRAMAC can provide notifications that allow problems to be addressed and fixed before an actual failure occurs. This not only eliminates the equipment failure event, but also saves money that would otherwise be spent on expediting parts and last minute travel expenses.

RRAMAC can also help rail customers reduce operating costs. For example, RRAMAC’s energy management solutions can tie into local weather forecasts to help predict energy needs for the coming hours or days. Energy usage reports provide site-by-site analysis of energy usage along with potential cost savings. Cellular costs are minimized by sending data only on demand or on change.  In many locations, cellular costs can be eliminated entirely by using a remote security device that allows remote access through existing internet networks, Railway Equipment Co. says.

RRAMAC’s turnkey customized solutions typically include:
    •    alarm notifications via text or email;
    •    predictive notification of pending failures;
    •    a web based dashboard to view the status of all remote assets;
    •    individual status pages for each asset;
    •    alarm history;
    •    historical trending;
    •    camera ciews of remote sites;
    •    energy usage reports;
    •    other customized reports;
    •    connectivity to local weather forecasts to predict upcoming energy requirements; and
    •    connectivity to other software programs such as maintenance management or inventory.