Irish Rail to Deploy Real-Time Diagnostic System from Trimble Company, Nexala

Trimble announced today that Irish Rail will be deploying Nexala’s R2M real-time remote diagnostics monitoring system across its CAF 29000 commuter fleet of trains. The system allows railway operators to streamline maintenance costs and provide efficiencies across their fleet by automating manual tasks.

Nexala provides an integrated suite of on premise and software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions for large transport operators and global train and component manufacturers that manage the lifecycle of rail transport vehicles from operation through maintenance and repair. The Nexala R2M system combines shore-based software and on-train equipment to deliver fault alerts as they occur for effective condition-based maintenance. Communicating with the maintenance depots in real time, the system allows for efficient fault diagnostics and work scheduling by maintenance teams. In addition, by analyzing irregularities of individual components and their behaviors across the entire fleet, the R2M system allows preemptive maintenance actions to be performed to avoid future failures.

With the on-board Nexala Control Unit (NCU), communications and R2M software rolled out on the CAF 29000 commuter fleet, Irish Rail will be able to aggregate data from a range of sources including door control units, alarm concentrators, fuel systems, TELOC data recorders, and Train Management and Diagnostic System (TMDS) on-board computers and transmit them to the data centre where the maintenance teams can monitor the fleet in real time. In addition to real-time monitoring, the Nexala system also provides reporting and trend analysis functions, giving the maintenance teams greater visibility into the overall health of their fleet and allowing them to plan for maintenance accordingly.

The new project follows the successful implementation of the Nexala R2M system across Irish Rail’s Hyundai Rotem Class 22000 DMU fleet, which has seen significantly improved performance and reliability since the introduction of the Nexala system. This initiative was the first in the Irish Rail industry where a comprehensive real-time data, transmission and analysis system had been retro-fitted to a complete fleet of trains, delivering real-time information to the Irish Rail control center. Although the original objective for using the Nexala diagnostic system was to improve operational efficiencies and fleet performance, as the project progressed it also delivered broader cross departmental business benefits such as fleet safety, driver performance, timetabling data, and infrastructure and energy analysis.

Peter Smyth, Irish Rail’s chief mechanical engineer, said:

“Nexala’s real-time remote diagnostic system was successfully rolled out across our InterCity Class 22000 fleet in 2013. This has resulted in significant maintenance savings, incident prevention and recovery, and improved operational efficiencies”

“We look forward to equipping the CAF 29000 commuter fleet so we can experience similar benefits to the implementation on the InterCity Class 22000 fleet.”

John O’Sullivan, CEO of Nexala, added:

“Our fundamental focus is to provide solutions that drive agility, improve efficiency and provide better visibility into railway operations to maximize productivity”

“We look forward to working with Irish Rail on the new project.”