CETEST gets on track

In response to concerns over the effects of railway noise on passengers and local residents, CETEST has expanded its technology for assessment of external and internal railway vehicle noise.

As noise directly affects quality of life and is a major concern for railway (and other industries), CETEST approached test and measurement specialist Hottinger Brüel & Kjær (HBK) for the best solutions, to ensure it could offer customers flexible, reliable test and evaluation services.

HBK provided CETEST with several tools including omnidirectional microphones, LAN-XI data acquisition hardware (multichannel input modules), sound level meters, sound level calibrators and recording systems based on PULSE LabShop™ and BK Connect®, all of which enables CETEST to validate indoor and outdoor acoustic performance in different situations, post-process data and obtain accurate results. 

This equipment, together with a loudspeaker sound source and DIRAC room acoustics software, is also used for speech intelligibility measurements of public address systems and conversations between adjacent passengers in compliance with the IEC 60268–16 standard.  For the sound power determination of railway components (for example, gearboxes or traction units) both sound intensity and sound pressure methods are used, correcting the sound field by measuring the reverberation time. CETEST also measure sound insulation of doors and other partitions.

Founded in 2007 as an independent company, CETEST offers its testing services to customers, mainly in the railway industry. It has worked with some of the largest companies in the railway sector and helped with certification processes for railway vehicles, components, and systems – both new and modified. Having attained EN 9100 accreditation CETEST has now branched out into the aviation and wind energy sectors.