Railway Locomotive

Transport Network - Oil Condition Monitoring

Requirements

Tan Delta equipment was deployed across a fleet of large diesel electric locomotives to improve reliability, maintenance scheduling and control.

Solutions

An Oil Quality Sensor (OQSx) was installed down stream from the main engine oil filter using a simple prefabricated manifold which was fitted in-line and into which the sensor was installed.
Power for the sensor was provided by an available feed from the engine. Data was sent to a locally fitted Oil Quality Display (OQD) to show real time data, as well as being connected to the existing telematics system, such that data was communicated back to the customers central maintenance control and planning department.
Data from the sensor is used to help plan optimal servicing whilst simultaneously providing an alert mechanism to identify potential problems before damage is caused.

Benefits

The customer has benefited from the ability to track actual maintenance activities of locomotive operators through the data provided by the sensor and ensure that an optimal service schedule maintained, thus reducing operating and failure costs.

Highlights

Cost Effective: Actual oil consumption was reduced by 21%.
Improved Maintenance Schedules: Equipment failure costs were reduced due to improved maintenance schedules and auditing of correct procedures through analysis of the data.
Reduced Waste: Oil disposal costs were dramatically reduced due to fewer oil changes.
Reduced Maintenance Intervals: Service intervals were extended and their cost reduced due to improved need based scheduling.