HOT WHEEL - Optical Measurement System For Railway Wheels

HOT WHEEL system is designed to allow fully automated inspection of railway wheels in hot (1100 C) condition.

The wheels are placed on the rotary table by robots. The table makes one revolution, laser 2D scanners get a cloud of points for the whole surface of the wheels. The software calculates necessary parameters and shows a report of measurements.

The duration of measurement is 20 seconds. The measurement results are displayed on the control panel.

The control panel has two screens. The first screen shows a 3D profile of the inspected wheel. Surfaces which have anomalies or defects are colorized in the palette from blue to red. The second screen shows either a current status of the equipment and its parts (Capability to program parameters of measurement process is secured) or a table with parameters of checked wheels. For better spatial orientation in a three-dimensional image, a cross-section of the current check point is highlithed. 

The results are save into a local database and exported to the database of the plant. For further statistical estimation this data can be called and showed in the software again. The system allows to exchange inbound and outbound data with external devices via  Ethernet and Profiling. 

Accuracy +/- 1 mm.

The system is made to be in the service 24/7 (three shifts a day, 8000 hours a year).

The system is equipped with a two-steps thermostabilization module. The main water cooling ensures the operability of all mechanisms. The additional active antifreeze chiller keeps a stable temperature of the laser scanners.

We applied materials with a coefficient of thermal expansion close to one to avoid any risk of measurement error.