Track testing

Railway Track Testing

Track testing

Accurate and detailed data on track conditions is critical for the safety of rail passengers and employees. While there are significant technical challenges in manufacturing gyros for this environment, Watson Industries has the expertise, the technology and the proven experience to provide the best products for this application.

Watson Industries manufactures inertial gyro sensor packages that give data on track superelevation (roll angle), roll rate, yaw rate, truck hunting, and track irregularities.

Watson Experience

Watson Industries has been supplying inertial gyro sensors to the rail industry since 1987. In that time several types of products have been supplied to many customers.

Applicable Products

Technical Challenges

The accuracy needed in this demanding environment requires the best sensors. Gyros with low drift and superior noise performance are critical to measuring superelevation angle. Furthermore, these gyros must withstand the high vibrations of railway track testing without induced noise errors.

Watson Industries has incorporated our most rugged gyros into our railway inertial sensor packages. These gyros are proven to provide superior performance in this environment for extended periods of time.

Requirements

  • Roll Angle: ±15°
  • Rate range: ±50 ° /sec
  • Lateral acceleration: ±0.5 G, 2 G rms
  • Shock: 200 G
  • Temperature: -40° C to +50° C
  • Vibration: 4 G rms
  • Velocity Input: Our sensors in this application require a velocity input from an outside source. There are three options for this input: An analog voltage, digital RS-232 signal, or pulses from an encoder wheel.

Typical Options

We are able to accommodate your custom needs. Go to our custom product modifications page for a listing of the most common custom options we support.

Custom options for this application:

  • Non-standard mounting orientation