STS Portable Railhead Tribometer

秋季落叶导致铁路车轮和铁轨之间的摩擦非常小，每年英国铁路行业在损坏、延误、重新安排和安全问题上的成本约为3.5亿英镑（RSSB Adhere）。铁路旅行是一种环保的运输方式（占全球二氧化碳排放量的1.8%，而道路占71%，IEA）。它还可以具有社会包容性，用户不必负担得起昂贵的私人车辆。然而，由于低摩擦而导致的延误和停止/启动秋季时间表正在损害其声誉并增加客户成本。尽管低摩擦引起的成本、延误、轨道损坏、环境破坏和安全问题，但摩擦系数并没有常规测量。这意味着昂贵的（6400万英镑/年），有时对环境有破坏性的清洁的有效性很难确定，而是使用试错法。这不仅浪费时间和金钱，还减缓了创新速度。目前解决这一问题的障碍是缺乏合适的摩擦测量设备，也称为摩擦计。目前的产品不可靠、复杂、笨重（最高可达30公斤，这限制了产品的使用）且价格昂贵（50，000英镑），因此主要由研究机构和大学使用，而不是通过广泛的行业采用来最大化影响。谢菲尔德摩擦学服务公司设计了一种新的便携式轨头摩擦测量工具，旨在广泛的行业采用。它使用起来很直观，因此不需要长时间的培训，在所有天气条件下都能可靠地使用，更轻，更便携，具有更大的包容性。STS正在申请资金，以帮助开发，测试和批准这种新型设备。它将使铁路行业能够找到并防止低摩擦，通过优化摩擦管理方法，减少延误和防止损坏，同时提高铁路安全性，节省数百万英镑的成本。

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.