Weigh-In-Motion with Overload & Imbalance Detection
Available as an add-on capability to the Wheel Impact Load Detector or as a stand-alone wayside installation, the Train Overload & Imbalance Detector (TOID) or Weigh-in-Motion (WIM) system is a must have for any railway.
Salient’s TOID is a low cost solution that can reduce derailment conditions and infrastructure damage by detecting and alarming on overloaded or imbalanced vehicles at track speeds. Using statistical analysis of multiple vertical load measurements recorded by the detector, an estimate of the static weight of a rail car is derived to determine if the rail car is overloaded or imbalanced beyond safe operating limits. These systems are stand alone, strain gage based (similar to WILD hardware) measurement arrays that monitor vehicle weight conditions in a very cost effective manner.
Another version of this system is the high
speed WIM (Weigh-In-Motion) capability, which reduces the need
to take individual rail cars out of service for weighing. Low
speed or revenue-scale weigh-in-motion systems with an accuracy
of +/- 0.1% command a very high price and require special
vehicle handling which usually will require out of service
operations. Some railroads and their customers are willing to
tolerate a limited degree of error in return for a less
expensive investment and faster system throughput. Though not
intended for use as a revenue scale, Salient's high speed
weigh-in-motion system provides an alternative to weigh bridges
by delivering a +/- 1% weighing accuracy over 95% of the time
for a fraction of the cost. During the other five percent of the
time, the margin of error is within +/-5% and is usually caused
by defective wheels, though sometimes by hunting trucks or other
degraded conditions that reveal themselves in the process. The
WIM system can be stand-alone or added to a WILD installation at
a very reasonable cost.