VR FleetCare and EKE-Electronics Collaborate to Provide Wider Range of Condition-Based Maintenance Solutions for Rolling Stock and Track Infra

13. September 2022 News and press releases

Digitalisation is a major trend in rail transport and offers a lot of opportunities to improve maintenance operations. To enable customers to take advantage of this, VR FleetCare and EKE-Electronics recently announced a collaboration of their sales and project implementation that will give customers access to a wider range of technical and support services for advanced condition-based maintenance solutions of trains and track infrastructure.

Specifically, the subject of the co-operation is a system for measuring the condition and operation of the bogie system of rolling stock and its subsystems, as well as the condition of the track from standard in-service trains.

We help our customers to transition from time-based maintenance to condition-based rolling stock and track maintenance

“With our SmartCare solutions, we help our customers to transition from time-based maintenance to condition-based rolling stock and track maintenance. The objective of the collaboration agreement with EKE-Electronics is to offer our customers digital solutions that can improve operational reliability, optimise track and rolling stock maintenance and reduce life cycle costs”, says Sami Kalevirta, Head of Digital Services at VR FleetCare.

Jointly developed system for remote condition monitoring

These solutions and their sophisticated analytics functionalities have been jointly developed and verified on commercial trains of VR Group running on the track of the Finnish Traffic Infrastructure Agency (FTIA) since 2019. They form a complete end-to-end condition monitoring solution enabling the implementation of condition-based maintenance for rolling stock and track infrastructure.

The system has already been able to detect several rail surface defects at their early stage when they are still easy to repair. Typically, this type of defects are observed by measurement trains only when the defect has spread to the supporting structures and require a larger maintenance operation.

We can now address the market with the developed solutions together with a full range of services offered from VR FleetCare

The services now offered by the VR FleetCare and EKE-Electronics collaboration provide end-to-end support for the lifetime of the project. This includes VR FleetCare’s experience in installation planning and supervision, regulatory permissions, maintenance process optimisation and monitoring services. EKE-Electronics’ scope includes the SmartVision™ remote condition monitoring system including measurement equipment with edge processing software, secure communications between train and wayside as well as cloud-based software for analytics and visualisation including on-going support services.

Karl Lönngren, Director of Digital Services at EKE-Electronics said “EKE-Electronics, and its British subsidiary Humaware, has benefited significantly from the development and field verification cooperation with VR FleetCare. With this new contract, we can now address the market with the developed solutions together with a full range of services offered from VR FleetCare, one of the front runners of deploying digitalisation in railway maintenance operations.”

InnoTrans 2022 Speaker’s Corner

VR FleetCare and EKE-Electronics will be organising a seminar in co-operation at InnoTrans’ Speaker’s Corner in Hall 27. The seminar will take place on Thursday September 22, at 11.30-12.30 (GMT+2) and the subject of the seminar is How to Digitalise Track and Train Maintenance Through the Power of Sisu.

The seminar will cover the benefits of machine learning in train operations and maintenance, finding a path from time-consuming routines to productive work and the results that the implementation of condition monitoring on railway infrastructure has had in Finland. The topics deal with questions such as how to obtain real-life information on the condition of the assets and what kind of value can be expected from condition monitoring of switches and track circuits.

About VR FleetCare

We at VR FleetCare chose to solve the challenges in a smart way by utilising the modern technology. Rail transport is a growing trend, where reliability play a decisive role in the flowing movement of people and goods. We have introduced a series of digital maintenance solutions that improve the safety and punctuality of rail traffic and help create a cost-effective maintenance program. We produce data to support decisions, which creates transparency and allows you to plan future maintenance and investments smarter. SmartCare solutions are part of the service offering of the Finnish railway maintenance company VR FleetCare.

Participates in the InnoTrans 2022 trade fair and is available to meet at Hall 6.2, Stand No. 617.

About EKE-Electronics

EKE-Electronics Ltd is the leading provider of Train Control and Management System (TCMS) and Condition Based Monitoring (CBM) with turnkey project management and safety control systems. We offer solutions and technologies to rolling stock manufacturers, train operating companies, system integrators and rail fleet maintenance companies as well as to infra owners and fleet and infra maintainers. Our solutions are designed to fit for all kinds of trains: high speed trains, commuter trains, metros, trams, passenger coaches and locomotives.

Participates in the InnoTrans 2022 trade fair and is available to meet at Hall 27, Stand No. 471.

For further information, contact

Sami Kalevirta, Head of Digital Services
VR FleetCare
[email protected]

Karl Lönngren, Director, Digital Services
EKE-Electronics Ltd.
[email protected]
Or visit www.smartvision.fi