Electric trains collect energy along the route for on-board utilization. The pantograph strip interaction with the wire depends on the overhead line geometry and wire thickness that are subject to wear as well as impacted by the track quality. Measurement such as stagger, height and wire wear are fundamental to assess and optimise the next maintenance actions required.
While the inspection and replacement of pantograph strips that can be done in depots, the cyclic inspection, maintenance and renewal of the overhead line is done using possession time, so the condition based approach can be very beneficial.
Moreover, controlling the degree of wire wear and its rate of deterioration is very important establishing when the wire will be renewed.
As for track and rails, wire quality indexes can be defined and calculated using condition data coming from measurement surveys to evaluate local and global quality of wires.
RAMSYS has been designed to support the catenary maintenance and includes a set of functionalities (e.g. management of real and virtual poles, overlapping sections, etc.) and business rules oriented to support overhead line M&R decisions.
