Written by: Stuart Chirls, Senior Editor Wi-Tronix, LLC of Bolingbrook, Ill., announced that it has signed a contract to provide its Wi-Nostix predictive diagnostics software-as-a-service for Co-Operative Bulk Handling Group, Australia’s largest grain co-op. Headquartered in Perth, CBH will enable its entire fleet of 25 locomotives with the Wi-Nostix service in order to improve the proactive maintenance of their assets. Wi-Nostix is an online equipment condition monitoring solution that uses pattern recognition to detect potential problems. When Wi-Nostix detects a deviation in a system’s normal performance behavior, it alerts the user to a potential issue before an actual failure occurs. This allows the users the opportunity to plan and schedule a repair before system issues manifest into costly service failures or catastrophic breakdowns. Matthew Mews, CBH’s Commercial Manager – Rail said, “Having Wi-Nostix on the locomotives is like having a technician out with every train every hour of the day. This keeps our services reliable and gives the maintenance team a heads-up when they need to chase down a locomotive and intervene before we have a problem.” “We operate block trains on someone else’s rails in a multi-user environment,” said Mews, “and the locos only get shopped on major services. Wi-Nostix’s real-time support in every loco is assisting Watco to get every train home to port full and on time, maximizing utilization to support our immense shipping program.” The Australian carrier operates in partnership with Kansas-based Watco Companies, which operates and performs the locomotive and train maintenance. Continue reading...
