HITACHI RAIL Ltd has agreed to buy Perpetuum, a technology firm supplying the rail industry. Perpetuum’s product utilises wireless condition monitoring to spot faults and have them fixed before they delay passengers’ journeys. None of the 3,000 carriages that are fitted with Perpetuum sensors have ever had critical components fail in service.
Once they are installed on trains, Perpetuum’s self-powering digital sensors detect on-board vibrations and send back real-time data about the performance of critical train parts – such as wheelsets, gearboxes, motors or bogies – faster and more accurately than traditional condition monitoring approaches. Combining this information with artificial intelligence-led analytical tools means potential faults are identified and fixed before they impact services.
The Southampton-based business, which has 73 employees, has customers in three continents, including a number of UK train operating companies.
