Hunting Truck Detector Solution
Hunting trucks underneath rail cars can violently oscillate from one rail to the other as they traverse along tangent track. This motion can induce excessive lateral forces that significantly contribute to the rapid wear of rail and vehicle in a relatively short time. This particular type of degraded vehicle performance is a leading cause of damage to delicate lading and to customer complaints about ride quality. Hunting trucks also cause increased fuel consumption and result in severe damage to truck components where derailment can result.
Similar in design to the Wheel Impact Load Detector (WILD), this system is available as a stand-alone system or as an add-on to the WILD. The HTD measures the array of lateral forces exerted by a hunting truck on a passing train. What's unique about the Salient design is that it takes into account the dynamic relationship between vertical and lateral loads when coupled with a WILD; that is, the system compares simultaneous readings from a WILD and a HTD to identify critical instances where the wheel flange and rail gage face geometry may promote flange-climb derailments. These measurements are processed through a highly sophisticated proprietary algorithm and transformed into a Hunting Index to identify and alarm on vehicles that exhibit excessive side-to-side motion. If the forces exceed an acceptable threshold, an automatic report notifies the customer which truck requires action based on their tailored alarming requirements and long-term analytical needs.