PRT300 Portable Rail Tribometer
A new inspection tool to measure friction and quantify rail condition, for more informed, data-driven decisions on friction management.
Tribometer design principle
Wheel/rail friction cannot be measured directly. A tribometer creates a model wheel/rail system and measures the friction of this system.
The accuracy of the measurement is determined by how close the model system is to the real system of interest, how well the model system can be controlled and how accurately the force measurement can be taken.
With results validated against full scale test facilities, the Rivelin Rail PRT300 is designed to produce the most accurate measurement possible in a lightweight device.
Operating principle
The Rivelin Rail portable tribometer magnetically clamps to the top of the rail to provide point measurements. A freely rotating measurement ball is used, creep is generated by skewing the axis of rotation of the ball relative to the direction of motion at a set angle. This generates lateral creep in the contact, the tangent of the angle gives the effective linear creep.
Key specifications
Normal force
100-200 N
Measurement ball
55 mm ER8 replaceable
Effective creep
1-14 %
Power on to result time
<60 seconds
Contact pressure
700-1000 MPa
Maximum speed
400 mm/s
Weight
3.5 kg
Results
Displayed on screen and saved to micro-SD card
Friction coefficient displayed on screen
Saved as summary file for simple analysis
Raw data (300 datapoints per repeat) available
Validation
Results validated against a full scale wheel/rail test facility
Back-to-back testing, also useful for lab to field scaling
Comparable results between tribometer and full scale test facility