With industry 4.0, GCF’s fleet becomes Smart

Significant investments in machines with advanced technologies

Technology 4.0. At least ten trains and high-production machines that joined GCF's fleet in the last few months were equipped with this system. Tamping machines, ballast cleaners, welding machines, locomotives and loaders that increase the already high number of machines (in addition to 620 elements, one of the biggest fleets in Europe) and make it safer and '’smart’’.

“With the machines featuring this technology – explains Luca Lacorte from GCF’s management office in Rome - we have the possibility to obtain the positions, production and operating data, any alarms, through web platforms, app or software. In other words, we are able to monitor machine operation, and not only: we have the possibility to interact with it and, if needed, by sending remote commands, activate the management of safety procedures".

2 Ipe locomotives are the latest addition, which have been immediately placed in service in the tensioning sites; before them, a line-shunting Plasser 09-32/4S tampering machine, a Plasser 09-3X line tampering machine, a Matisa B45 tampering machine, a B66 U and a line tampering machine with DGS trainer (with dynamic stabilizer) integrated to the Plasser, 09-3X Dynamic model. Moreover, a powerful Matisa C75 ballast cleaner, two bimodal, road-track Vaiacar Sparkrail welding machines, 5 Colmar road-track loaders and a tracked Colmar loader, 3 Man lorry with Fassi crane.

“Intelligent” machines, all able to dialogue in cloud computing, transmitting in real-time, the analytical data concerning their position, activity status and maintenance condition. In brief, able to provide a constantly updated check-up to a central server, thanks to which it is possible to accurately plan targeted maintenance activities, promptly find any anomalies to plan urgent services, know the overall condition of the machine or its mechanical and technical components: hours of work, the conditions and pressure of the hydraulic system, amount of stones “sucked” by a ballast cleaner or strokes of every hammer of a ballast cleaner, for example.

An innovative technology that marks the so called “fourth, pervasive industrial revolution’’: it is being implemented rapidly everywhere, from the main machines - construction and renewal trains such as Transalp’s and GCF’s P95, and high-production machines (C75 ballast cleaner, Matisa or Plasser tampering machines, Vaiacar welding machines) - up to ordinary locomotives and machines: wagons, road-track loaders, lorries with crane, allowing to build integrated and efficient fleets.
Boosting production and above all, the production safety conditions thanks to the possibility to manage all the machines more effectively, monitoring and checking the management, operating and maintenance data for each machine.

“In Installation and Electrification sites – underscores Edoardo Rossi, GCF’s President - the use of operating machines of high-production efficiency equipped with devices and tools that implement the latest technologies, has always distinguished us, thus allowing us to compete at international level with services, execution times, safety, process and product quality. Boosting the integration of technologies 4.0 in our industrial processes marks a new step forward, a remarkable investment in the future”.