IMA Dresden
IMA Dresden – Number One in Testing and Analysing Rail Vehicles
This article first appeared in the Railway-News magazine Issue 4 2021.
IMA Dresden is an independent and DAkkS-accredited test centre for the rail vehicle industry and for all other branches too.
We support manufacturers and suppliers in the development process and assist transport companies with damage analysis and product optimisation. We see ourselves as a competent partner by your side for testing, monitoring and certification of materials, components and structures.
Testing Is Our Vocation: From Test Planning to Test Report
We handle carrying or motor bogies for locomotives, freight or passenger trains on our 13 test benches on a test area of over 3,000 square metres.
For testing railcar bodies, we operate three separate test tracks that guarantee a high test capacity. On average, we test between ten and twelve car bodies on our premises every year.
We carry out measurement runs all over the world and evaluate the measurement data. We define individual measurement programmes for you.
We perform FE simulations, assess the strength of products and areas of stress, and carry out strength and lifespan assessments.
We Measure the World: Test Drives and Stress Measurements
Irrespective of whether it is Helsinki or Melbourne, Düsseldorf or Dresden – utilising appropriate measurements, measuring runs and continuous monitoring enables us to record loads in actual applications – whether for approval trials and tests, calculation and simulation or for structure optimisation in problem cases.
We execute measurements of mechanical and electrical variables with static and dynamic loads under operating conditions and install complete measurement chains including the process adaptation.
Long-Term Measurements
We carry out long-term measurements for data acquisition in real operation, for example for the assessment of the impact and effects on the service life or the operating strength verification.
We develop systems for monitoring structures, components and plants, which we tailor directly to specific requirements; they issue alerts immediately in case of load or damage events.In numerous applications in different fields, we measure analogue signals such as strain gauges, accelerations and displacements in conjunction with GPS and bus data. This enables us to perform extensive analysis – including location-based evaluation – of measurement data with runtimes of several years.
