Siemens Mobility awarded Knorr-Bremse a long-term remote condition monitoring contract for heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems (HVAC) on large regional train fleets in the UK.
Knorr-Bremse has started upgrading a total of 733 HVAC systems installed on 172 trains with its digital remote condition monitoring solution, enhancing Siemens Mobility’s condition based maintenance capability. The fleets comprise 45 five-car Class 444 and 127 four-car Class 450 regional trains.
As Knorr-Bremse is systematically building its expertise in the field of digital Maintenance-as-a-Service (MaaS) for the rail industry, the company will be responsible for providing remote condition monitoring of the HVAC systems on 172 trains built and maintained by Siemens Mobility for UK operator South Western Railway.
The upgrading and modernisation of the HVAC systems has commenced in 2021 and is scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2022, so that the new solution can go live in spring of the same year.
“By upgrading several large passenger train fleets with our remote condition monitoring solutions, we are helping to bring them into the digital age. Big data insights and new CO2 sensors will help to optimize fleet maintenance costs, reduce the trains’ energy consumption and control the flow of fresh air into the passenger compartments even more precisely,” said Nicolas Lange, Chairman of the Management Board of Knorr-Bremse Rail Vehicle Systems.
The original HVAC systems were made by Merak, Knorr-Bremse’s global subsidiary for climate control solutions for trains. The upgrade will allow them to capture large quantities of operating data that will then be intelligently analyzed by Knorr-Bremse via the cloud.
The resulting big data insights will enable end-to-end system monitoring, allowing Siemens Mobility’s maintenance teams to spot early indications that something may need repairing and proactively make the relevant repairs. In turn, this will help to ensure availability by reducing train downtime and depot turnaround times. All the HVAC systems will also be fitted with CO2 sensors, allowing them to measure air quality and increase the intake of fresh air as and when required. Because fresh air often has to be cooled or heated, continuously adjusting the fresh air intake to current requirements helps to reduce energy consumption, further improving the trains’ overall environmental footprint.
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