Bombardier Transportation is one of the world’s leading companies in the rail equipment manufacturing and servicing industry. The company’s manufacturing operation in Derby builds passenger rail vehicles for the UK market. The company’s test facility in Derby provides independent testing services to rail vehicle owners and operators in the UK, Europe and worldwide.
European freight wagons require compliance to a number of rail vehicle ride and safety standards such as the European Standard BS EN 14363. In the past, it took about 160 hours to analyze test data to verify compliance with this safety standard. The data analysis flow typically consists of filtering data, performing frequency analysis, and statistical analysis and generating reports.
Bombardier Transportation now uses nCode GlyphWorks test data analysis software to automate this process, reducing the time required to analyze test data from 160 hours to about 20 hours. In addition to saving time, the automated process provides a very high level of assurance that the data analysis procedures required to validate compliance with the standard have been followed to specification.
Bombardier Transportation offers one of the most comprehensive rail vehicle portfolios in the world, building passenger rail vehicles, locomotives, bogies and propulsion, and control systems. Bogies consist of the interface between the vehicle body and the rails. Over 100,000 Bombardier rail vehicles are in operation globally. Bombardier metro trains are providing reliable passenger service in more than 40 cities worldwide. Bombardier is the leading global supplier of rail equipment and services in 7 out of 11 product segments in which it operates. Bombardier has participated in almost every high speed train operating today in Europe. For example, Bombardier’s Regina multiple unit passenger train set a new Swedish speed record or 295 kilometers per hour.
Testing plays an important role in the design, development and manufacturing of Bombardier Transportation’s products. Testing is performed during the development process, in the validation of first-off production vehicles, as part of the quality assurance process after the vehicle enters production, and when vehicles are modified for new markets. The Derby test facility performs static and dynamic testing on all types of rail vehicles by acquiring: stress, acceleration, pressure, torque, displacement, temperature, electrical current and other measurements from a variety of sensors.