Sensor design for railway transportation

Rail transportation is one of the subsystems and the other transport subsystems are in intense competition. In our country, the demand to the railway transportation has stayed behind of road passenger and freight transport. To increase market share and competitiveness of the railway the service quality and reliability of the railways should be increased. Punctuality and reliability are among the criteria for determining the quality of the transport sub-system. Keeping the desired level of these criteria can be achieved by the use of railways hot box detectors. The hot box term is used to express an overheated axle bearing on a train. A dramatic rise of temperature is seen due to inadequate lubrication and defective bearings. It is not only a problem in itself but also it brings many problems with it. This situation can lead to very catastrophic failure if not detected early enough. Hot box detectors are used to detect the overheating of axle bearings while these problems are at their first stage before a failure occurs. The aim of hot box detectors is not troubleshooting or repairment, the goal here is to give an alert before getting a failure, to provide information regarding the situation of each components of rail vehicle during its operation time, to make life tests of materials and to prevent possible accidents. In this study, it is aimed to design a smart hot box detector system using infrared technology to maintain reliable operation of railway transmission. An infrared sensor is used to detect the heat emitted from defective bearings. The advantage of this measurement system is that the failure of the system can be detected without interrupting the railway traffic. The system consists of a measurement device, PC software for users and a database. This system has a vital role to prevent hazardous conditions in railways.