Wed, 02 October, 2019
TWI is involved in the launch of a new Railway Innovation Centre to address a series of technical challenges in order to deliver a social impact across Europe and beyond.
Chinui Kim, had been investigating the remanufacture of railway wheels in Korea when he spoke with the Department of International Trade (DIT) about the possibility of further research and validation of his work in the UK.
The DIT, having knowledge of TWI’s unrelated Aurora Project to remanufacture rail wheels, made the connection and got Mr. Kim in touch with the experts at TWI.
This, in turn, led to the creation of a new Railway Innovation Centre in collaboration with UK business, research development and innovation company, Prometheus Connect Ltd, who is also representing the Korean rail industry manufacturing, materials and maintenance pioneer, Asia-Tech Co., Ltd.
While the technological aspects of the work to be undertaken by the Innovation Centre revolve around engineering solutions such as the performance and wear of rail wheels and tracks, there is a hope that this will have a real social impact on rail users.
The innovation centre will not only examine the wheel and track interface, but will also investigate the entire rail infrastructure as part of a wider lifecycle analysis, including the optimisation of energy use and decarbonisation of the railways.
It is believed that by addressing these issues, the innovation centre can help to improve customer experience by creating greater connectivity between the service users and services themselves. By mitigating lifecycle costs for the rail industry and reducing maintenance intervention time frames, the innovation centre should also help ease the financial burden placed on rail operators.
A plan for testing, inspection and identifying improvements in technology should satisfy industry standards, while creating new disruptive business practices such as renting wheels by the mile rather than purchasing them outright.
A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed and now the work programme can be created while additional stakeholders are sought. With initial funding already secured, it seems that a fortuitous connection made by the DIT could see TWI help improve rail customer experience for the future.
Signing the Memorandum of Understanding
The visitors were taken on a tour of TWI