Wheels and rails: inspection during operation

High speeds, constant vibrations and tough environmental conditions: Rails and wheels used in railway engineering are subject to high stresses. At the same time, they guarantee a smooth ride and great comfort. To prevent accidents and ensure safe and reliable operation, it is crucial to identify wear and damage to rail profiles and wheel rims at an early stage. Renowned manufacturers of measurement and inspection systems therefore rely on Photonfocus embedded vision systems. They are used in stationary wheel measurement systems and for production inspections, as well as in mobile solutions, such as for surveying points or sections of the track with test trains. 

Laser triangulation is becoming established as the proven method for fast 3D measurement and inspection. A laser line is projected onto the workpiece to be inspected, while a camera is used to record the height offset of the line in pixels. If complete objects are scanned using this process, the individual light sections can be joined together to form a three-dimensional measurement result.

Photonfocus 3D sensors and intelligent embedded vision solutions with onboard data processing are ideally suited to measuring rails, wheels and brakes in railway engineering applications. They combine fast image sensors with subpixel-accurate calculations of the laser line positions in real time, thereby achieving extremely high triangulation rates. As a result, robust and economical triangulation systems can be achieved with one or multiple cameras.