Insight Metro Technology for Railway Rolling Stock

Thanks to SKF technology, the Ningbo Rail Transit in the Chinese city of Ningbo has extended the service life of bearings from 800,000 to 1 million kilometers of operation, as reported by the railway portal Railway Supply.

The Insight Metro technology was developed by the Swedish company SKF in China for domestic railway rolling stock.

Procurement of High-Speed Trains

Insight Metro is an autonomous bearing condition monitoring device powered by batteries, which records data on the speed, temperature, and vibration of individual bearings.

These data are then transmitted to the SKF cloud via a secure connection to the mobile network.

The devices operate autonomously for up to six months and can be charged on-site using wireless charging technology.

Ningbo Rail Transit has acquired 96 Insight Metro devices for its fleet of 200 trains running on Line 1.

They will be installed on high-mileage bearings in the axial assemblies to provide early warnings of any signs of wear or damage.

The devices will regularly send snapshots to the SKF diagnostic service center, where experts will analyze bearing condition and performance data using sophisticated algorithms.

Additionally, the technical services of Ningbo Rail Transit will receive monthly reports and, in critical events, real-time notifications about the bearing conditions.

Photo: SKF

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