Infrared Thermography Inspection for Safer Rail Transport Automation

A new approach and experimental results on infrared thermographic inspection of relays used in rail automation are presented. The purpose of the research is to conduct inspection and evaluation of the contact system in real working conditions without disconnecting the relays from the circuit and without removing their protective cover. For this purpose, an algorithm has been developed for digital thermograms analising and temperature information deriving at pixel level. The results obtained from the application of the method can be used to evaluate the relay residual life as well as to make early diagnostics of defects due to the contact wearing out.