Image credit: West Midland Trains

Train Door Remote Condition Monitoring (RCM)

Optimum safety is the project driver.

Train companies have passengers and staff to protect 24/7 and it’s never short of top of mind for these companies.  The Transportise team, who have amassed knowledge from 20 years of control system development and testing, not only in rail, but also military, motorsport and aerospace, are well placed to work on the challenge of devising the ultimate smart door system, to improve that already in existence.  The end result will be a retro-fit electro-pneumatic smart door system, designed with RCM in mind and with a digital twin.

Test, test, and test again

This is our mantra at Transportise, gained from working with critical industry and services.  Companies rely on us for testing, and over the years, we’ve built up the expertise to build our own testing software.  A  glass door project such as this, so named because the goal is for the door to be the best and the safest it can possibly be, will typically go through 200, 500, 1000 test cycles; however many is deemed necessary to get 100% success rate. 

A train door is a work horse.  Consider the sheer volume of traffic, invariably in a rush, that squeezes through that space.  And at the other end of the spectrum, slower members of the public that need to navigate with care, or that have several bags of luggage to manoeuvre.  The humble door therefore has to be a work of art, science and tech.

Behind closed doors – the digital twin

Train doors are disparate critical asset on the move, often at high speed.  Each doorway records the following data on each operation:

  • Door leaf speed
  • Time to open
  • Time to close
  • Door closing force
  • Number of operations
  • Number of obstacles
  • Any false operations
  • Passenger count

Through the physical door’s digital twin, this data becomes near real time, delivering actionable insights to the individuals or team responsible.    

The Transportise team have put years of development into projects like this.  We’ve earned specific rail accreditations, passed scrupulous quality controls, to include our own and it’s why we’re sought out for challenging projects.

Image credit: West Midlands Trains