Business profile
Information is power D
PI can report another very successful year for 2013 due in no short measure to its increasing involvement in
helping Toc’s get better data from their trains.
DPI’s MD John Vaines explained how it worked. ‘There is a massive need for real time data collection on today’s overworked train and metro infrastructures. In a perfect world where money was plentiful, operators could order new trains with all the latest data collection and remote diagnostics pre- fitted. Unfortunately that world doesn’t exist and our mission is to help operators get the most out of their existing rolling stock however old it might be.’
Two minds better than one A common problem for many large operators is they know what they want to do to improve their data collection, but due to ever decreasing internal budgets they can’t employ enough staff with the very specialist skills and contacts needed to build bespoke data collection and communications systems. Companies like DPI have exactly this skill set but don’t understand all the needs and subtleties required to get the important correct data
from operators’ trains. So they work together using each other’s skill set to create and design a document that satisfies the operator’s needs and is technically underwritten by the system provider. This would involve a cardinal specification taking into account all environmental expectations, shock, vibration, temperature and humidity. It would outline critical dimensions as these systems have to fit into any available space; it would look at:
• IP ratings – inside or outside?
• maintainability – what connectors etc. are the operator’s maintenance engineers familiar with and are they suitable?
• power inputs - what standards do they have to meet and what is the expected variation in voltage? What is an acceptable hold time? Does its need to
Extra rail business has driven Diamond Point International into the top ten companies in Kent’s MegaGrowth 50 survey for the third year in a row
be isolated?
• the specification of the data to be collected, is it digital, analogue, serial? How many channels? – future expansion in all these issues can be collectively resolved to build a system from two mind-sets with all the advantages that can provide
GPS SATELLITE
ON BOARD VIDEO SECURITY SYSTEM
3G CONNECTIVITY
TRAIN OPERATOR SERVERS
WIFI
EXISTING TRAIN MGT SYSTEM
• application software – sometimes operators may wish to be in charge of the SW, if not the system provider can provide this through an accredited SW partner - again flexibility is built in from the beginning.
EMBEDDED BRIDGE COMPUTER
WIRELESS 433MHZ SENSORS / RADIO MODEMS FOR BRAKES AND WHEELS
ACCELEROMETERS FOR VIBRATION AND RIDE COMFORT
Working on key installations DPI is currently working on several key installations for London Underground including 200 systems for Central Line trains and all the computing for ATMS (automatic track measurement system) which is destined to revolutionise LU’s predictive fault diagnosis and track maintenance regimes. It is also working on a pilot scheme with two national train and track operators to improve real time data collection on track condition.
•
For more information call 01634 300900 or email
john.vaines@
dpie.com
EMBEDDED COMPUTER LINKS TO EXISTING MGT. SYSTEM PROVIDING VARIOUS CONNECTIVITY OPTIONS
Image, left: Typical Train Data system showing how that data can be exported to a secure cloud
Page 156 February 2014
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