Rubirail- what we do
Product Upgrades
Many trains are over 40 years old. Even vehicle which are relatively “new” may be 20 years old. Over time original equipment may become obsolete, or it may be superseded in its performance by newer designs offering lower operating costs or lowered exhaust emissions. Rubirail are very adept and experienced in review of power equipment options which exist to upgrade older vehicles and can make a costed recommendation as to how the product can be improved and upgrade to extent it potential life.
Maintenance Optimisation / Overhaul Specification
Train performance is a consequence of the reliability of each individual part on that train. The quality, and so reliability, of those individual parts is down to how well they are maintained and overhauled. It follows that to maximise your train reliability you need to get the specifications that control those details right.
One of the key differentiators of Rubirail is our practical hands on ability, together with our formal engineering qualifications; this allows us to look at and analyse any particular component, when we do this we always start by establishing how it should work. Once we understand that we can establish how best it should be maintained and (at the end of its life) overhauled. Maintenance documentation can be reviewed in combination with a reliability review to suggest upgrades to practice or periodicity.
We can identify where over-maintenance is taking place and can assist in redefining maintenance strategy. We have experience of condition monitoring and how it can be used to facilitate cost-effective maintenance with increased reliability. Our experience of oil spectrographic analysis dates back to 1989 and we understand what it can do and (more importantly) what it cannot do. We are independent – we can therefore advise and carry out risk assessments, either as an integral part of a larger project – such as maintenance changes, or as a standalone issue – such as a material change
There is no mechanical component from a train that Rubirail does not have first hand experience of. We understand recovery processes, NDT, and performance testing. We can advise you on the best techniques to use and how to validate the results. We understand what the component has to do when it is back in service and can write a specification to ensure that it will do that, time after time.
Since its inception Rubirail has written or reviewed somewhere in excess of 500 maintenance and overhaul specifications. Our Experience can assist you to greater reliability.
Project Management / Special Investigations
Do you need dedicated focus on a particular problem, or do you have a project on the blocks that requires initiating, but you do not have resource with time to spare, or with the specific skills required to move forward? Rubirail have the experience and knowledge to assist you.
In the hectic world of the UK Rail Industry it is often the case that when something unusual arrives, or a major project needs some dedicated focus there is just not enough manpower available; in those circumstances Rubirail are available take on your problems we have a proven track record of achievement. By our nature we are divorced from the day to day distractions and pressures.
This allows us to focus on the delivery of technical projects; when you need to have someone sitting with you who can ask the right questions of your suppliers and understand the accuracy and relevance of their response Rubirail may be the answer.
Projects we have undertaken recently include the repair and recommissioning of crash damaged vehicles. This included working with the OE manufacturer and specialist repair organisations and engineering consultants following the vehicles all the way through from specification of the repair, delivery of the repair and post repair recommissioning.
Other projects have seen us oversee the emissions testing of diesel engines in a third party test facility to test alternative fuels and exhaust aftertreatment systems, in other cases we’ve managed the test of power packs in the overhauler test facility in order to prove upgrades to the engine or its systems. We are very experienced in engine and transmission testing.
Special Investigations have encompassed problems with leaking gearboxes, where we specified and developed a test rig, investigated the cause of the oil leakage, proposed a solution, tested the solution on the test rig, productionised the solution, rig tested the production solution and managed the test fit to the vehicle including in service monitoring and evaluation before writing a modification procedure for serial production.
We have investigated overheating DMU engines, endemic turbocharger failures, fuel filter premature blockage, if it can happen on a diesel train we can advise and assist.
Product Failure Analysis
If you need a clear understanding of the root cause of a failure to win a warranty claim or to prevent further failures Rubirail can assist you with a forensic investigation.
Rubirail understand in great detail how diesel engines, vehicle transmissions and gearboxes work. We understand the nuances of lubricant selection and the effects of operation regimes and maintenance. Because of this intimate knowledge of the inner workings of the main mechanical components on a train we are ideally positioned to undertake the forensic investigation required in the aftermath of a failure when you need to understand the true root cause of a failure.
Such an understanding of the root cause of a failure may assist to win a warranty claim; it may be needed to prevent further failures by identifying what is going wrong with the maintenance or with the lubrication, in some cases it may be needed to assist in the redesign of a critical component, Rubirail can assist with all that – we are happy to liaise with suppliers and to negotiate warranty resolution on our clients behalf, if components need to be improved or maintenance tasks redefined we will do that we can help ensure that the failure never occurs again. We will manage third party specialist laboratories for oil or material analysis to get the critical information required eliminate recurring failures.
Over the past 5 years Rubirail have participated in over 100 failure investigations.