Electronic Sensor System for Monitoring the Temperature Status of Rolling Stock in Motion

This work is an important step in the building of a Checkpoint System - national system for monitoring and control of rolling stock during motion, for the needs of the railway infrastructure in Bulgaria. Implementation of the system ensures a high level of safety of train movements and prevention of railway incidents. A basic function of the whole system is the identification of unacceptable overheating of rolling stocks' components mainly wheel bearing assemblies and brake sets, and/or other components of a rail vehicle. The chosen approach involves the use of non-contact infrared temperature sensors. It can be used also thermal imaging cameras instead of individual temperature sensors, which increase the possibilities of the temperature status monitoring of the railway rolling stock. A concept, model and kit of a real-time system for thermal imaging have been developed and presented in the present paper. In order to optimize the efficiency of the overall system, a techno-economic analysis has been made.