ERMEWA, INVEHO and IRT Railenium launch innovation projects

Left to right: Peter Reinshagen, Managing Director ERMEWA SA, Julien Mathiaud, Managing Director INVEHO, Bertrand Minary, CEO IRT Railenium – Credit: ERMEWA SA

ERMEWA SA, INVEHO and IRT Railenium have launched a joint research and innovation project Maintenance 4.0 (M4.0). In the M4.0 project, three major rail freight companies set a goal to advance condition-based predictive maintenance. The deal was signed at InnoTrans 2022 in Berlin. A team of experts has begun working on the first research package.

Project goal

Improving rail vehicle safety, reliability and availability through efficient processes is the overarching goal of this innovation project. The focus is on significantly reducing turnaround time (TaT). This reduction in TaT will greatly contribute to improving the operational efficiency of rail freight supply chains.

The collaborative approach to maintenance between industry practitioners and scientists is unprecedented. In a jointly defined work package, the partners involved bring together their knowledge and experience from their practice and academic research work. Topics include energy management, data acquisition, wear model definition and testing, failure scenarios and testing.

This project will greatly contribute to the efficiency of rail freight transportation. This therefore fits perfectly with the sector’s goal in Europe to double the share of rail freight traffic to 30% by 2030. The European Green Deal climate targets cannot be met without this rail transition.

ERMEWA Managing Director Peter Reinshagen said: “We are excited to bring our hands-on perspective to this new and unique Maintenance 4.0 collaboration project. I will continue.”

INVEHO Managing Director Julien Mathiaud said: “This new maintenance organization will lead to better preparation of workshops when creating workload plans, as opposed to traditional preventative or curative maintenance. The percentage of mobile maintenance work will increase and the accuracy of the work will be more effective.”

“Railenium is proud to work with Ermewa and Inveho on this ambitious innovation project,” said Bertrand Minary, CEO of IRT Railenium. “This project will enable Railenium to provide solutions for professional and everyday users. To do so, we will rely on our expertise in energy management, data mining and artificial intelligence, among other things, to reduce the wear and tear of freight cars and their key components. must identify and better understand the laws of am.”