FYI, regarding an initiative by the University of California at San Diego to laser check rail for “tumors” (transverse fissures?):
Travelingengineer:
That’s a different take on the ultrosonic method of flaw detection. I always thought that a Laser was an optical instrument, but they are indicating that their device induces a vibration in the rail which allows the defect to be detected.
FTA:"…The experimental device shoots a high speed laser at rail lines, causing them to vibrate. The device them uses microphones to capture and evaluate the sound. Anomalies represent areas of rail that might be cracked and prone to failure.
The process “is like looking for little tumors that grow every time a train passes over, adding weight to the rain,” said Francesco Lanza, the UCSD structural engineeer who is leading the project. “If we can spot these cracks, we might be able to fix them before they become a problem…”
A. Wonder how this stacks up with the speed and accuracy of the current systems?
B. Is it faster? How about accuracy of defect identificatiuon?
**C.**Is it cheaper or more expensive to build, use, or maintain?
It will be interesting to hear what some of the Pro’s who work in the Industry here have to say about it.
Thanks for posting![tup][tup]
OK - No big deal, they found another way to put energy into the rail. The trick will be to see if they can manipulate the return signal better than ultrasonic or electromagnetic to see the defects in the margins and do it at a reasonable cost. Those two methods have been pitted against each other and different arrays for years. I tend to favor the IC/ATSF/Herzog ultrasonic method from my experiences over the electromagnetic (Sperry/Dapco) efforts (including several tests pitting one against the other) , but both have their supporters.