UST 96 - Ultrasonic rail inspection vehicle

The UST 96 is an inspection vehicle for ultrasonic inspection of tracks with great precision at high speed. The UST 96 is specifically used to detect rail defects.

The UST 96 is equipped with its own diesel hydraulic power and can be used on all standard gauge lines. It has been put into action successfully on European railroad tracks (Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, Italy, Norway, the Netherlands and Spain), and has been awarded all appropriate approvals.

Measurements are carried out at speeds up to 100 kph. The UST 96 has been equipped with the latest in measuring and computer technology. The rail is inspected at different angles with the help of 16 special ultrasonic detection heads. The control electronics ensure permanent optimisation of the signal levels, the rail profile type is automatically taken into account in the optimisation.

Eddy current testing of the rails

During eddy current testing, the measured data from the EC probes are sent to the control computer, where they are combined with other data such as GPS and path cycle information. By means of special evaluation software, detected surface damages are already sorted out at once. All of the measurement data are subject to a direct evaluation here. A more detailed evaluation and analysis can be done off-line. The results are presented on the screen as track charts (amplitudes v. mileage) and stored digitally.

Evaluation of the data

Rail defects close to the surface got more and more important during recent past. Because of new high quality rail materials of high resistance to wear the material abrasion from usual operations is no longer sufficient to wear out cracks that grow from natural wear and tear. These types of defects hardly can be detected with ultrasonic testing equipment beeing used for rail testing in the past. Therefor only combined rail testing with ultrasonic and eddy current methods can provide enough information about the rail status.