Self-power Technology for Sensorized Rail Axle Boxes with SKF

Opportunity overview

Made up of complex mechanical and electrical systems, with hundreds of moving parts – maintenance of railway vehicles along its life is a considerable cost for train owners. Hence, reducing and optimizing maintenance costs is central in the industry. A proactive approach instead of a reactive or traditional approach of time- and mileage-based maintenance intervals ensures that operators can make better use of their components' potential service life. However, even the monitoring sensors have a limited life cycle requiring replacement and the misalignment of the maintenance schedules of different components often present operators with their own challenges.

Today, the sensors cannot in general remain in service for the long timespan as the axle box bearings themselves, resulting in an inefficient scheduling of the maintenance work. By integrating modern self-power solutions to the sensors, the energy availability can be increased without needing to significantly increase product size and weight. Hence, the functionalities and lifespan of the sensors can be increased, to boost the efficiency of the solution. SKF is now looking for a new generation technology partner to co-develop a wireless solution that can secure never ending energy recharging in the sensor or alternatively new battery technologies to get unlimited functionalities and match bearing lifespan.

Summary of requested solution

The solution we are looking for should enhance the energy efficiency of the bearing monitoring sensors to ultimately lengthen their lifespan, to match those of the bearings themselves. Furthermore, the proposed solutions should preferably offer an innovative advantage for cost-efficiency and commercial competitiveness against existing solutions in the market.