Amberg Technologies: Up to 70 Per Cent Lower Costs for Tamping Surveying
Berlin/Regensdorf – Deutsche Bahn procures its new tamping surveying system for track maintenance from Amberg Technologies. The Swiss tamping surveying solution unites track position and distance surveying in a single system and can be used for both new track installations and for maintenance. It was handed over at the InnoTrans trade fair.
Deutsche Bahn Netz AG, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bahn AG (DB), switches to a new tamping surveying solution from Amberg Technologies. It will support maintenance measures of automated tamping of tracks and points. The decisive factors involved in the move were primarily better performance and improved quality of survey data provided by the Amberg Rail tamping surveying solution: The cost of tamping surveying can thus be reduced by 40 to 70 per cent. ‘We sought for and found an innovative tamping surveying solution. Not only are servicing costs reduced thanks to increased performance for maintenance, new installation and modernisation of the rail network, we also anticipate benefits in terms of a competitive edge’, Thomas Behn, machine pool general superintendent at DB Netz AG, summarises the background for the procurement. Amberg Technologies hands over the systems, specially adapted to DB’s requirements, officially in September at the InnoTrans in Berlin, the international trade fair for transportation technology.
Additional Services and Individual Adaptations
According to DB Netz AG, another reason for the decision in favour of the Amberg Rail tamping surveying solution was that Amberg Technologies provide users with intensive training and project monitoring. ‘We were also impressed with the efficient implementation: The original Amberg Rail tamping surveying solution was configured to the requirements profile specified in the DB Netze invitation to tender within three months. The new tamping surveying system is highly flexible: it works quickly and efficiently on two easily transportable track surveying trolleys and can be easily operated by two people’, Thomas Behn concludes.
Cost-efficient Track Maintenance, Optimised Track Position
‘Track installers can carry out cost-efficient maintenance measures using the new tamping surveying solution and improve the track quality sustainably. This enables them to make an important contribution to the network operator’s efficient track maintenance’, explains Heiko Barthold, Product Manager Rail at Amberg Technologies, and continues: ‘The impulse for this product development came from the German market.’
Innovation for the Tamping Surveying Process
With the extended tamping surveying solution Amberg Technologies establishes a new surveying process based on the long chord method. The millimetre-precision surveying results allow detection of long-wave track irregularities on-the-spot. The surveying method complies with the requirements of DB guideline 824.0050. The resulting correction values are submitted – in the usual manner – as information directly to the tamping machine. What’s special about the new tamping surveying system is that in the profile mode – during track surveying – it can also record the results of lateral offset measurements. A couple of examples: platform edges, the distance to the neighbouring track or the position of the overhead wire.
Cost-efficiency Thanks to Operational Flexibility and Best Surveying Performance
The new tamping surveying solution is based on the tried-and-tested GRP System FX surveying platform and normally uses two practical, flexible and easy to use surveying trolleys. Beside integrated sensors for superelevation and gauge measurements, a precision tachymeter ensures continuous recording of the track position in a single survey run. This results in surveying capacities of more than 1,200 metres per hour, meaning that the new tamping surveying solution is three to five times faster than traditional visualisation methods.
Alternatively, tamping surveying is possible using one track surveying trolley only. This operating mode is especially useful for surveying tasks in points areas or if complete track possession is not possible. In the latter case the tachymeter is safely installed adjacent to the track. Due to their low weight the mobile surveying devices require only short set-up times and are highly flexible in handling. They can be removed from the track in seconds.
Contract Facts
Scope of contract: 2 systems Amberg Rail tamping surveying solution
Contract awarded: May 2010
Delivery date: September 2010
Customer: Deutsche Bahn Netze AG
Amberg Rail Tamping Surveying Solution Facts
Highlights: Track position and lateral offset measurements in a single system, simple operation using the long chord method, tamping data determination and processing in accordance with the requirements of modern maintenance processes, complete compatibility with Plasser & Theurer and Matisa tamping machines, quickly demountable system for flexible car transportation, unrestricted tamping and smooth, tracked logistics.
DB guideline:824.0050 Measurement and detection of long-wave track irregularities
833.0050 Type approval as railways surveying devices by DB AG
Interfaces: DOS-ALC, WIN-ALC, Matisa, Framafer, Verm.esn, LandXML, etc.
GRP technology: modular system concept, more than 400 customer references worldwide
Operation:2 persons, with 2 or one track surveying trolleys
Surveying capacity: up to 1,200 m/hr
Service: Initial application training and consolidation workshops, user support, service workshops
Amberg Technologies AG
Amberg Technologies AG has been developing user-friendly system solutions for georeferenced data acquisition and processing in the field of infrastructure development for around thirty years. This Swiss company offers standardised products, customer-specific system solutions and project-specific services in the fields of railways surveying, tunnel surveying, tunnel inspections and tunnel seismics.
Amberg Technologies AG: Facts and Figures
Established: 1981 from Amberg Engineering AG
Owner: Felix Amberg
Management: Hans Peter Müller
Locations: Regensdorf-Watt (CH), Karlsruhe (D)
Staff: 80
Divisions: Tunnel systems, rail systems, geo-engineering, geophysics
Sales partners: More than 30 worldwide
Rail users:In over 40 countries
Amberg Group: Amberg Engineering AG, Amberg Technologies AG, VSH VersuchsStollen Hagerbach AG