Project Summary

During autumn, leaf fall reduces the friction between railway wheels and rails, costing the UK rail industry an estimated £350 million annually. Despite its negative impacts on delays, rail damage, safety, and the environment, the friction coefficient is rarely measured, making it difficult to assess the effectiveness of expensive (roughly estimated to £64 million per year) cleaning methods. Current friction measurement methods are expensive, complex, and fragile, hindering their widespread adoption in the industry. Sheffield Tribology Services is developing a novel tribometer to measure rail friction and enable regular measurements, resulting in significant cost savings and increased resilience to disruptions.

Project Achievements

Design and development of a modular tribometer. A demonstrator was build, using a more portable piece of steel rather than a full sized rail, and successfully demonstrated to the Adhesion Research Group. Engagement with key future customer base from rail industry Feedback from these was obtained, some integrated into the development during this project (eg tribometer mounting onto rail, re-designed and now able to measure gauge corner as well as railhead). Others added to technology roadmap for future. Live testing of handheld product on heritage railway lines. Data has begun to be analysed to ensure measurement validity. Started the Network Rail product acceptance process. Technology roadmap and commercialisation plan for future.

Conclusions

The modular tribometer was designed, built and tested. The concept has been proved in trials and this can be used for further larger scale trials if future funding bids are successful. A commercialisation plan and technology roadmap has been created. Future work has been secured using the device to assess the performance of novel rail cleaning technologies. We learned about different use cases that would benefit the rail industry and re-designed accordingly. We will continue developing this prototype into a product so that it can be used by the rail industry to prevent damage, reduce delays and improve safety.

Next Steps

We will be carrying out live testing of the product on Network Rail Infrastructure and working towards NwR product acceptance TRIG has provided both the funding for the development of this technology and the connections for industry engagement. This h as accelerated our product development time. We have had future customers get in contact from both the UK and internationally. Although we are not ready to sell our device as a finished product yet, we have taken on consultancy work as a revenue stream over the next 6 months. We would like to apply for further funding for integration of additional device functionality and nationwide trials. We have applied to an InnovateUK programme and will also look out for any other potential opportunities.