ZF predictive maintenance for railway vehicles

ZF Friedrichshafen AG

Prevent Damage to Wheels and Rails with IoT Cloud Solutions

ZF Friedrichshafen AG, a global leader in driveline and chassis technology, utilizes advanced cloud-based predictive maintenance to detect potential damage to wheels and rails on rail vehicles at an early stage. This approach minimizes the workload for rail technicians, enhances repair efficiency, and eliminates noise sources affecting local residents. The result is an improved experience for passengers and communities alike.

Our concept

Monitor Wheel and Rail Wear with Intelligent Maintenance

Efficient operation of rail transport systems relies heavily on flawless contact between steel wheels and rails. Damage or wear on either side can cause vibrations, increased wear, and potential safety risks, leading to higher maintenance costs and noise pollution for nearby residents.

To address these challenges, ZF Friedrichshafen AG developed a digital solution for comprehensive condition monitoring of wheel tyres and rail infrastructure. doubleSlash contributed by designing a cloud platform, powered by Microsoft Azure Cloud, to autonomously import, analyze, and evaluate vehicle data.

The solution also enables monitoring of entire fleets and train networks, paving the way for more efficient and eco-friendly planning of vehicle availability in urban transport.

“We are delighted to have reached a first milestone in terms of automated condition monitoring and proactive maintenance planning with the 'wheel flat spot detection' function. Our technology partner doubleSlash has provided us with optimal support for this project. We have thus laid the foundations for planning vehicle availability in inner-city traffic more efficiently in future and operating them in a more environmentally friendly manner." – Alan Dittrich // Manager Digital Solutions – Bahn-Antriebssysteme // ZF Friedrichshafen AG

An Innovative and Intelligent Web Application Backed by Extensive IoT and Microsoft Azure Expertise

As an agile software and IT partner, doubleSlash supported ZF with comprehensive consulting and technological expertise, from product vision to project conception and management. Our involvement extended to backend and frontend development, utilizing Scrum methodology to create a functional product through short, iterative cycles. Our services also include ongoing support and bug fixing for the platform.

Our benefits

Our Services

Agile Project Management with Scrum
IoT Architecture
Agile Software Development
IoT Backend Development
Frontend Development
Design and Functionality
Testing

Our tools

Used Technologies

Azure (Key Vault, Azure AD, Event Grid, Application Insights, Function App, Cosmos DB, Logic App, Redis Cache, Blob Storage)
Python
.Net
Angular
Terraform
WordPress (User Manual)