Background

To meet these needs, Chainway has integrated advanced RFID and IoT technologies into a comprehensive maintenance solution, powered by its MC51 Built-in RFID Reader. This innovation transforms railway maintenance from reactive troubleshooting to proactive asset management.

Challenges

• Fragmented Data Across the Ecosystem
  A single locomotive contains more than 2,000 key components. Data is scattered across manufacturers, depots, and maintenance teams, making unified tracking and coordination a major challenge.

• Maintenance Decisions Relying on Limited Insight
  Most operational and maintenance data remains undocumented or isolated. Without accurate historical data or environmental context, failure predictions are often based on guesswork.

• Challenging Operating Environments
  Railway workshops are filled with metal structures, electromagnetic interference, oil, and dust. These harsh conditions frequently disrupt the performance of conventional electronic devices.

• Stringent Regulatory Requirements
  National railway regulations mandate “one component, one file” traceability. Manual data entry is not only inefficient, but also prone to errors and potential fraud.

Solution

• IP67-certified for water and dust resistance; operates reliably in high-altitude, high-humidity, and high-temperature conditions.
• Reinforced housing survives drops from 1.5 meters on all six sides.
• 6-inch touchscreen supports glove operation, aided by an anti-mistouch algorithm.
• Ergonomic hardware buttons allow quick activation of RFID, barcode scanning, and custom functions.

• Compact built-in UHF antenna balances portability with powerful performance—ideal for confined spaces and warehouse operations.
• Compatible with next-gen Impinj Gen2X, enhancing tag sensitivity and extending reading range. Equipped with anti-interference radio technology to maintain high recognition accuracy (up to 99.8%) even in metal-heavy environments.
• Supports multi-tag reading and large-memory railway-grade tags, enabling structured digital record access.

• Integrates GPS and multiple sensors to bind component data with operator ID, operation time, and quality checks in real time.
• 5G connectivity enables instant cloud syncing of maintenance logs, forming tamper-proof digital records.
• Large internal storage supports up to 100,000 records and allows offline task execution when the network is unavailable.
• Upon scanning, the large display auto-loads relevant data—component specs, inspection standards, and past records—reducing search time to just 10 seconds and increasing work order efficiency by 65%.

• Fault omission rate reduced from 18% to 0.5%.
• Inventory checks accelerated by 12x, reducing per-vehicle inspection time from 3 days to 0.5 hours.
• Average repair time decreased from 4.5 hours to 22 minutes.
• Integrated UHF RFID, 5G, and sensor modules cut system deployment time by 60%.

• Each component is assigned a unique RFID tag for one-code-per-item tracking, creating a tamper-proof digital record.
• Achieved 100% digital record-keeping, improving national audit efficiency by 90%.

• Preventive maintenance rate rose from 30% to 85%.
• Unplanned failures reduced by 52%.
• Annual maintenance costs per train decreased by millions.
• Component lifespan extended by 15–20%, reducing total lifecycle costs by over 10%.

• Deployed across high-speed rail bases for 12 major component types (e.g., wheelsets, bearings).
• Sets a benchmark for digital railway maintenance, supporting standardization across metro, urban rail, aviation, and heavy equipment sectors.

Conclusion