STS Portable Railhead Tribometer

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Leaf fall during the autumn season causes very low friction between railway wheel and rail, costing the UK rail industry approximately £350,000,000 per year (RSSB Adhere) in damage, delays, rescheduling and safety concerns.Rail travel is an environmentally friendly (1.8% of global CO2 emissions, compared to 71 % road, IEA) method of transport. It can also be socially inclusive, where users do not have to afford an expensive private vehicle. However, delays and stop/start autumn timetables due to low friction are damaging its reputation and increasing customer costs.Despite the costs, delays, rail damage, environmental destruction and safety concerns caused by low friction, the friction coefficient is not routinely measured. This means the effectiveness of the costly (£64 million/yr) and sometimes environmentally destructive cleaning is difficult to determine and trial and error is used instead. This wastes time and money and slows innovation.The current barrier to this problem is the lack of suitable friction measuring devices, also known as tribometers. Current products are unreliable, complicated, heavy (up to 30 kg which limits inclusion) and expensive (£50,000) so are mainly used by research organisations and universities rather than maximising impact through widespread industry adoption.Sheffield Tribology Services has designed a new portable railhead friction measuring tool designed for widespread industry adoption. It is intuitive to use so does not require a long training period, reliable for use in all weather conditions, lighter and more portable for greater inclusivity.STS is applying for funding to aid to development, testing and approvals of this novel device. It will allow the rail industry to find and prevent low friction, with multi-million pound cost savings from optimising friction management methods, reducing delays and preventing damage whilst improving safety on the railway.