Public Funding for Peak To Peak Measurement Solutions LTD.

Increasing the use of recycled materials in place of raw materials offers multiple economic, social, and climate benefits. It is vital in reducing environmental pollution and is key to meeting Net Zero targets. By recycling our materials, we conserve natural resources, reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions, and ultimately create a healthier planet for ourselves, and for future generations. However, the adoption of recycled materials is being held back by a number of limitations. Recycled materials typically demonstrate greater variation in quality when compared with raw equivalents. In addition, recycled content often has a narrower processing window. The combination of these means that processes running recycled materials are less stable, and require greater control to yield a consistent product. This requirement can mean manufacturers are either hesitant or unable to switch to recycled equivalents. This project aims to demonstrate the feasibility of a new sensing technology that will give manufacturers information about their processes that until now has been unattainable. This greater understanding will enable operators to better control their processes, make more efficient use of process materials, reduce waste and increase their adoption of recycled materials. In doing so this technology will also assist closed-loop control for lights-out machine operation, ensuring maximum production with minimum setup, downtime and environmental impact. Peak to Peak Measurement Solutions Ltd are specialists in condition monitoring sensor technology. Their non-invasive condition monitoring technology is able to offer online, non-invasive and real-time measurements. In this project, they will partner with experts from Brunel University London to demonstrate and validate their technology with state-of-the-art laboratory measurements. The ultimate aim for this project is to de-risk and incentivise the increased use of recycled materials, and as a result increase its comparative value, thereby decreasing the existing reliance on raw materials. The project team will work with a range of stakeholders along the manufacturing value chain to demonstrate the technology viability, and to evaluate and quantify its benefit to process operators.

Peak to Peak Measurement Solutions Ltd. will work with a range of legal, strategic, and financial professionals to protect its intellectual property and support in negotiating and exploiting its rail product offerings with UK and International partners. It's technology specifically aims to support in achieving UK Net Zero targets.

This project aims to introduce a new revolutionary sensing technology that will give manufacturers previously unavailable information about their processes, and help them increase their use of recycled materials. Peak to Peak Measurement Solutions Ltd are specialists in condition monitoring using embedded ultrasonics technology. Our non-invasive condition monitoring technology is able to offer online, non-invasive and real-time characterisation of critical process parameters and facilitates closed-loop control for lights-out machine operation, ensuring maximum production with minimum setup and downtime. The aim for this work is to de-risk and incentivise the increased use of recycled materials and as a result increase its value, and decrease the existing reliance on virgin materials. Peak to Peak will work with a range of stakeholders along the manufacturing value chain to demonstrate the technologies industrial viability. This will include working with an industrial manufacturer to complete pilot-level trials of the sensor, and evaluate and quantify it's benefit to the user.

Understanding the characteristics and conditions under which rail vehicles interact with the track are fundamental to efficient and effective railway operation. This project will develop a new technology for rail service operators to strategically manage and optimise vehicle-track interaction (VTI) condition through automated, accurate wheel-rail interfacial measurements. The commercialisation of this technology will have positive impacts for operational efficiency, allow remote in-service track health monitoring, support automated inspections and result in improvements to fleet fuel efficiency and reduce carbon emissions. The current methods of measuring and understanding VTI conditions rely on indirect measurements based on wheel-mounted strain gauges which are costly to implement, the results of which are fed into models to inform asset and operation management such as rail reprofiling, lubricant/friction modifier implementation, and revenue service speed reduction. In partnership with the University of Sheffield (UoS), Peak to Peak Measurement Solutions (PktoPk) have already developed and demonstrated dynamic wheel-mounted sensors in laboratory conditions, successfully characterising wheel-rail interfacial contact patch shape and location. This project will continue the development and demonstration of these sensors, reporting on a broader range of parameters to meet the industry's needs. Initially, stakeholder analysis will identify which measurements are prioritised by the industry, which will determine the focus of the development. The project will develop robust sensor solutions for rapid application onto railway wheels and accompanying real-time processing algorithms; to enable captured data to be instantly accessible and immediately useful and to report key, dynamic VTI parameters. Working in partnership with L.B. Foster, these systems will be installed on railway vehicles in revenue service for real-time feedback of contact parameters with a focus on lubricant and friction conditions. The captured data will give unique insights into a number of important variables, including: * Wheel-rail friction * Lubricant/friction modifier film thickness and characterisation * Poor track conditions * Dynamic contact stresses in the wheel PktoPk's sensors, mounted on revenue service vehicles, would be the first permanent ultrasonic sensor installations on railway wheels, allowing VTI data to be captured over wide stretches of track at higher speeds than currently possible. Through effective use of this data, railways will be able to: * Optimise friction management * Provide real-time mapping of entire rail networks * Significantly reduce unnecessary maintenance work * Increase efficiency and decrease down time * Optimise maintenance budgets * Detail key wheel-rail performance characteristics * Receive alarms for unacceptable surface roughness of the rail * Provide a milling/grinding machines with wheel-rail contact data for maintenance planning.

As UK rail freight growth increases, a detailed live understanding of the network condition is essential and is driving the need for industry digitalisation in the form of real-time and in-situ condition monitoring. This is also a key enabler of automated networks and the adoption of autonomous vehicles. In the UK many of the existing wayside rail measurement technologies (e.g. Weigh-in-Motion\[WiM\] and Wheel Impact Load Detector \[WILD\]) are expensive, time consuming to install, and permanent. Thus, the adoption of measurement technologies for improving service offerings is becoming increasingly important. Some proposed data streams are unmeasurable using commercially available technologies; other smaller rail sensors on the market only offer very basic measurements (such as vibration and temperature). Some can be achieved through strain gauging, weighbridges or manual inspection. However, Peak to Peak Measurement Solutions (PktoPk)'s solution is more robust, has longer term stability, is rapidly deployable, offers higher measurement frequency and is significantly cheaper/faster to deploy than any of the competing technologies. It builds on similar systems PktoPk have deployed to non-competing industries such as automotive, large marine diesel, and injection moulding. PktoPk proposes a novel technology to take key measurements using an ultrasonic array transducer mounted in a robust clamp that can be rapidly fixed under a rail of any gauge. Measurements will be taken in real-time and uploaded to a cloud platform. This solution is fast, portable and excellent value for money whilst providing tangible, reliable and cost-saving data. The system benefits to asset owners include; reducing possession duration, reducing inspection/maintenance downtime and providing rail operators with easy access to all the data streams listed below. * Dynamic lateral and vertical force (L/V) * Wheel-rail contact position and shape * Wheel-rail interfacial stiffness * Axle load/weight (ALM) * Additional 'standard' measurements (temperature/noise/vibration) The project will utilise PktoPk's close relationship with University of Sheffield, where the IP and right to operate is also shared, and will work with other local partners to create a demonstration of their novel technology to key rail stakeholders in a live rail environment. This event will also be broadcast with some international stakeholders who have already expressed their excitement about the demonstration.

Canada has the 5th largest rail network in the world and rail service operators are challenged to maintain the trackage to provide safe and efficient services. Severe rail wear, surface damage, ballast disruption, and other problems often result in revenue rail vehicle speed reduction, service disruption, unscheduled engineering works, and sometimes catastrophic failure. Rail vehicle mounted inspection systems gather data autonomously across the rail network in an attempt to identify 'outlier' locations. The National Research Council Canada (NRC) currently supplies a strain-gauge instrumented wheelset in an attempt to understand critical vehicle track interaction (VTI) parameters such as the wheel-rail contact condition, but this technology can only infer such information. A Sheffield based technology company Peak to Peak Measurement Solutions Ltd. (PktoPk) specialise in the supply of embedded ultrasonic sensor systems for the non-invasive measurement of dynamic machine contacts in the international rail, marine, automotive, manufacturing, and renewables markets. This grant will fund the development of PktoPk's existing rail-mounted ultrasonic sensor technology to be deployed onto an instrumented wheelset. This will be the first time ultrasonic transducer arrays have ever been embedded into the wheelset of an on-track railroad vehicle. The sensors will provide autonomous geotagged real-time measurements of the following key VTI parameters: * Wheel-rail contact area, shape, location of contact, flange contact, wheel climb, problems with gauge, cyclic top, wheel unloading points, understanding of pummelling (distribution of contact, wear/damage) * Understanding rail wear/rail head defects * Wheel-rail contact pressure and stiffness (inferring surface roughness and traction) * Lubricant/3rd body layer conditions; sand, ice, leaves on the line * Wheel axle yaw/angle of attack Much of this information cannot be measured using existing inspection vehicle mounted sensor products. The new 'ultrasonic NDT wheelset' can be installed on dedicated inspection vehicles, revenue service vehicles, or towed coaches, and can capture critical data at full revenue-service speeds. Having up-to-date quantitative geotagged VTI data across the rail network will support next generation intelligent engineering business systems providing critical real-time information to rail service operators. The result will be a rich stream of data laying foundations of digital connectivity that will safely deliver us to our next century of efficient operations with advanced maintenance scheduling, maximum rail vehicle operating speeds and highest revenue vehicle throughput. This collaboration will allow our partner NRC to offer a far superior instrumented wheelset product solution based on the embedded ultrasonic technology developed at The University of Sheffield' and PktoPk.