BIM | Brake Inspection Monitor

Track IQ - Brake Inspection Monitor (BIM) is installed on the wayside and inspects the brake assembly of trains passing the site. BIM uses image recognition techniques to measure the remaining material in each brake pad/shoe/disc and then calculates a replacement window based on the historical wear rate.

The wayside hardware consists of Cameras, Capture Units, Flash Units, Wheel Sensors, and AEI Tag readers. Components are connected to the Integrated Video Capture Module (IVCM) using copper cables protected by flexible armored conduit.

BrakeInspectionSite

Using a high quality captured image, the Brake Inspection Monitor is capable of measuring and monitoring:
- Pad, shoe and disc thickness
- Wear rates
- Sticking brakes
- Presence of the brake key
- Identification of missing brake pads

BIM can save rail companies many thousands of dollars in brakes by extracting the full working life of measured components without compromising safety.

One customer in a heavy-haul operation reported they would regularly change up to 25% of the pads in a set of wagons during routine inspections. Following the introduction of the Brake Pad Examiner, this figure went down to less than 5% delivering considerable savings in labour and materials.