Wheel Analyst
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What it is...

Rangecam Wheel Analyst software works with profile and wear data from rail-car wheels. It analyzes wear trends, and determines metal removal for wheel truing. It also allows you to view measured wheel and rail profiles together in order to inspect the wheel-rail interface. Wheel Analyst is an add-on to Rail View Plus or any of the other Rangecam office-use products.

Wheel Analyst uses data from KLD Labs’ WheelScan wayside wheel measurement system.

Who uses it...

Engineers with responsibility for vehicle and track maintenance.

Benefits...

• comparisons over time show where most wheel wear is occurring
• wheel-rail contact display helps determine appropriate grinding strategy
• trend charts show wear rates of key measurements
• comparison to target wheel shows need for truing
• 'open' database; easy data access and export

Wheel Analyst Selected Features

WHEEL PROFILE VIEW

This view provides specified measurements and shows how wheel shapes change over time.

Wheel profile display with comparison profiles and selected measurements

• optional comparison to one or more earlier measurements of the same wheels
• navigation buttons move between wheelsets
• selected measurement display
• choice of units: metric, English, or mixed
• user-defined layout measurement labels
• one-click toolbar for navigation and printing
• zoom in for a closer view of wheel wear over time

WHEEL/RAIL VIEW

Select both rails and wheels to view the wheel-rail interface.

Measured wheels on measured rails

• scrollbar moves wheels laterally to simulate curving
• gap chart shows contact points and conformality
• navigation functions work with both wheels and rails. Take a wheelset and ‘run’ it over a stretch of track, or select a point on track and ‘run’ a train over it.
• selected rail and wheel measurements are displayed

WHEEL TRUING VIEW

Select both rails and wheels to view the wheel-rail interface.

Wheel Truing View

• select from available target wheel profiles 
• chart shows location and depth of metal to be removed
• measurement display shows conditions to be corrected

WHEEL WEAR TREND

The wear trend chart shows the rate of change of specified measurements, allowing forecasting of wheel maintenance dates.

Wheel Wear Trend Chart, showing change in tread width

• shows actual measurement values, projected trend, and rate of change
• any wheel measurements may be selected for trending
• overlays allow a second measurement trend to be displayed
• user-defined critical limits can be superimposed on charts. The point at which the limit line intersects the trend line is the projected date when the limit will be reached
• user-defined chart axes