Safran Sensing Technologies Railways Accelerometer

The transportation system lies at the backbone of the civilized world, with the railway system being its most crucial component. As such, progress in this field has determined more and more high-tech sensors to be incorporated into trains and the infrastructure of the railways in order to ensure a proper evolution of this means of transportation. Not only do these sensors monitor the status of the trains and tracks, guide and control the train, facilitate repair planning and reduce maintenance costs, but they are also meant at improving aspects relating to passenger safety and comfort.

Accelerometers represent a large part of these sensors and they are used to monitor several types of mechanical motions such as inertial force (acceleration), tilt (inclination), vibration and shock.

Safran Sensing Technologies Switzerland produces MEMS based capacitive sensors, with attractive characteristics of size, power, reliability, long-term bias repeatability, signal to noise ratio and robustness. By combining integrated circuit processing with specific MEMS processes, we produce microscopic mechanical structures fit for today’s evolving field of railway transportation.

The need for reliable accelerometers

Most countries have a constantly evolving railway market, which is most often defined by the deployment of new generations of high-speed trains and specific infrastructure. These trains require high-tech on-board monitoring and control equipment fit to provide accurate readings about the status of the train, its carriages and the tracks. Such systems are based on reliable and high-specification accelerometers, which are crucial when it comes to guiding and controlling the vehicles, reducing maintenance costs and facilitating repair planning and also ensuring the highest safety and comfort standards.

Specific accelerometers railways applications

Safran Sensing Technologies Switzerland MEMS accelerometers may be applied in a wide range of applications in the railway systems, with the most common ones being:

• Active Suspension Systems
• Tilting Systems 
• Bogie Monitoring Systems  
• Train Positioning
• Low-noise Vibration Monitoring
• Preventive maintenance