Austria | Germany | France | Sweden | India | USA | China | Singapore
Cloud-based Railway Bridge Monitoring with Solar Powered Q.series DAQ
News | 2 minutes Reading Time |

Cloud-based Railway Bridge Monitoring with Solar Powered Q.series DAQ

For a large railway operator, Gantner Instruments continuously monitors a railway bridge using displacement transducers to detect deflection in bridge support elements.

Bridge movement is measured with every passing train and data is transferred to a Gantner Cloud system via 4G modem. In the case of unwanted bridge movement, an alarm is generated and the Railway Operations Center is notified by Email. For every passing train, data is acquired at 500Hz with high resolution to ensure precise measurement of bridge movements for further evaluation.

The challenge was the tight schedule to provide a solution with no possibility to power the measurement system from any local grid. In combination with the demand to generate fast and precise measurement data with every passing train, the power supply system had to be designed with great care. After analysis of the local region’s weather data from the past 5 years, two solar panels were selected along with a high-quality Lithium-Ion battery. This carefully selected combination of products guarantees several days of measurement autonomy, even under harsh environmental conditions including low temperature and solar radiation during the winter season.

The entire process from first customer interaction to the installation and commissioning of the off-grid measurement system took only 3 months. Gantner Instruments was responsible for the complete system design of the measurement cabinet as well as the simulation and design of the solar powered off-grid system. After 2 weeks of full-scale testing at Gantner Instruments’ headquarters located in Schruns, the complete measurement system was delivered on-site.

Thanks to close cooperation with the customer during all project phases, both the installation and commissioning of the complete measurement system were executed within one day. With the Gantner Cloud system now in operation, data is collected with every passing train while live measurement values and system status information is accessible for railway crew with just a few mouse clicks. With a web browser-based fleet monitoring system such as the Gantner Cloud, it is possible to manage any number of constructions, regardless if on-site grid power is available.

More articles

News

Mercedes GLC 350e plug-in hybrid – Photo Session in Schruns

Daimler used our company building in Schruns as the backdrop for the photo shoot for this year’s world premiere of the Mercedes-Benz GLC 350e plug-in hybrid.

Read more...
News

SUPSI PVLab Industry Days

On November 29 & 30, 2021, a webinar organized by SUPSI will be held on the topic of “Quality of production and production of energy”.

Read more...
News

Our new fiber optic measurement – without the hassle

Fiber optic measurement methods come with the advantage of being insensitive to interference from the environment. We all know that. What we also know is that actually using them in test and monitoring projects was not so easy so far. Either because there were steep learning curves or simply no integrated DAQ solution available. However, we have great news for you!

Read more...
News

PV & Grid Integration Symposium

Meet us at the 2019 PV Systems Symposium, the leading industry get together for PV Monitoring and grid integration in Albuquerque (New Mexico), United States.

Read more...