Italian company IMG Ultrasuoni Srl have recently purchased from OKOndt GROUP™ the ultrasonic rail tester USD2-77, intended for one rail line testing. The equipment purchase contract also stipulated the clause on the training course provision at the customer’s site. The trip had been planned for the end of November 2019.

The training itself included:

• theoretical part, where the specialists dwelled upon the design and parts of the rail flaw detector and the information display modes of the device (А-scan, Multi А-scan, В-scan);
• analysis of the test results using a specialized software;
• demonstration and hands-on experience of using the trolley on the railway track.

There was enough time dedicated to the training so the engineers of IMG Ultrasuoni Srl, who plan to operate our single rail flaw detector, could properly learn how to work with the device and use all its features.

Besides the meeting with the colleagues from IMG Ultrasuoni Srl, the specialists from OKOndt GROUP™ also visited Milanese office of the Italian Railways (originally called RFI - Rete Ferroviaria Italiana), the technical department of which requires an NDT equipment for rails that is capable of detecting the flaws on the side faces of the rail head. UDS2-77 perfectly suits to this task. Our engineers delivered the presentation of the equipment, then RFI representatives provided the rail sample with the artificial defects in it. UDS2-77 has successfully detected all the defects made in the sample.

During the testing, our railway inspection trolley also detected defects (cracks) in the side portions of the rail head. The detection of these cracks becomes possible due to the device design in which the “Tandem” sounding scheme is employed that distinguish UDS2-77 amongst other flaw detectors. The “Tandem” method allows to detect successfully the developing cracks in the side faces of the rail head, thus timely revealing the parts that require replacement.

The wide range of features of our mechanized ultrasonic rail testing equipment caught the interest of the Italian Railways representatives. The “Tandem” sounding scheme expands the area of testing thus making it more effective.

Taking into account the number of passengers and freight trains that daily go along the railway of the country and huge length of the track having the reliable non-destructive testing equipment is always vitally important. That is why during the presentation our experts also mentioned about a possibility of use of the eddy current flaw detectors to resolve this task. OKOndt GROUP™ have the eddy current rail inspection equipment in the range – the ETS2-77 8-channel trolley, using which it is possible to provide testing not only on the rails, but also the rail crossings. How to perform the eddy current testing of rails, you can read here

After having accomplished the training and the presentation OKOndt GROUP™ experts come back home. In total the trip lasted 4 days: November, 24 – November, 28. It’s our pleasure to mention that in such a short period of time we managed to accomplish successfully both planned tasks.