Ultrasonic vehicle-based rail inspection

Network Rail is working closely with Sperry and First Engineering it? trials of a new road rail vehicle that inspects the rail using Sperry ultrasonic track inspection technology, checking for defects and future potential problems. This new machine - the UTU 5 - is said to be much faster, more efficient and more reliable than conventional manual ultrasonic methods. The combination of train-based and road rail vehicle-based ultrasonic inspection systems represents the future for ultrasonic track inspection. According to reports, the introduction of a previous train-based system led to performance and reliability, improvements of 40% and a reduction in the number of broken rails in its first year. This article describes Sperry's development of vehicle based rail inspection and the ultrasonic system employed.