Condition-based maintenance for effective and efficient rolling stock capacity assurance : A study on heavy haul transport in Sweden

All businesses need equipment to deliver services or manufacture goods. Over time, this equipment will degrade, but with proper maintenance, the degradation can be controlled, and failed equipment can be restored to operational status. Run-to-failure maintenance is performed when equipment or systems break down. In preventive maintenance, equipment is maintained as a precautionary measure to prevent failure. Finally, condition-based maintenance recommends maintenance actions based on the condition of the asset. The railway is a superior mode of transport if capacity, speed and environment are the main criteria; it also plays a crucial role in heavily crowded regions. The condition of the wheels and the rails affects rail- way safety, and infrastructure regulators and managers are always trying to reduce potential risk areas. The wheel-rail interface triggers most of the cost for maintenance. The railway wagons in this research use a time-based maintenance strategy, a strategy which does not fully consider the actual health of the asset. However, by using condition data from observations, along with diagnostics and prognostics, an effective condition-based maintenance strategy can be planned effectively way and executed efficiently. The results of this research suggest the efficacy of using automatic condition monitoring systems to increase the amount of available data for analysis and maintenance support planning, rather than depending on a system where operators or maintenance personnel do the measurements. The results also indicate that continuous monitoring of lateral forces will decrease the risk of derailment. Condition monitoring data can support maintenance preparation, assessment, and improvements and help to form a continuous improvement loop. This, plus a condition-based maintenance strategy, will lead to capacity assurance.