IP Library Granted Patent US 10,989,694
Granted Patent B2
US 10,989,694 · App. 16/468,632 · Granted Apr 27, 2021

Rail inspection system

Inventors: Ryuzo Kawabata (Tokyo, JP); Hiroshi Suzuki (Saitama, JP); Kenji Yamamoto (Saitama, JP); Akihiko Kandori (Tokyo, JP)
Assignee: Hitachi High-Tech Fine Systems Corporation
G01N27/83B61K9/10B61L23/044G01N27/82G01N2291/2623
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 10,989,694
App. No.
16/468,632
Granted
Apr 27, 2021
Kind
B2
Abstract

Provided is a rail inspection system capable of accurately detecting a defect of a railroad rail. The system includes: a sensor part group that has a plurality of sensor parts having receiver coils, and first oscillator coils and second oscillator coils corresponding to the receiver coils being arranged in a line parallel in a width direction of a railroad rail to be inspected; an oscillation part that supplies an oscillation signal to each of the first oscillator coils and the second oscillator coils; and a detection part group that has a plurality of detection parts to detect, with respect to an output signal from each of the receiver coils when the sensor part group moves in a laying direction of the railroad rail, a first inspection signal corresponding to a first phase of the output signal and a second inspection signal corresponding to a second phase of the output signal.

Claims (18)

1. A rail inspection system comprising:

a plurality of sensor parts, each of which includes a receiver coil, a first oscillator coil and a second oscillator coil, the sensor parts being arranged in a line parallel to a width direction of a railroad rail as an inspection target;

an oscillation part which supplies an oscillation signal to each of the first oscillator coils and the second oscillator coils; and

a plurality of detection parts, each of which corresponds to one of the plurality of sensor parts, each of the detection parts configured to detect a first inspection signal corresponding to a first phase of an output signal and a second inspection signal corresponding to a second phase of the output signal, the output signal being output from the receiver coil of the corresponding sensor parts when the plurality of sensor parts moves in a laying direction of the railroad rail.

2. The rail inspection system according to claim 1 , further comprising:

an output processing part which outputs intensity distributions of displaying target signals corresponding to the plurality of sensor parts as a two-dimensional image when the first inspection signal and the second inspection signal or a result obtained by performing an arithmetic processing on the first inspection signal and the second inspection signal are set as the displaying target signal.

3. The rail inspection system according to claim 2 , wherein

the two-dimensional image is a contour image in which a display mode is set to correspond to an intensity of the displaying target signal.

4. The rail inspection system according to claim 3 , wherein

the two-dimensional image is an image in which a position of the railroad rail in the laying direction and a position in a width direction are used as axes.

5. The rail inspection system according to claim 4 , wherein

the displaying target signal is a signal which has an intensity corresponding to a depth of a defective portion formed in the railroad rail, and

the two-dimensional image is an image in which the depth of the defective portion is indicated by the display mode.

6. The rail inspection system according to claim 1 , further comprising:

a plurality of correction signal generating parts which output correction signals which have the same frequency as that of the oscillation signal and an amplitude and a phase different from those of the oscillation signal to the plurality of respective corresponding receiver coils; and

subtraction parts which subtract the corresponding correction signals from the output signals of the plurality of sensor parts and supply respective subtraction results to the corresponding detection parts.

7. The rail inspection system according to claim 1 , wherein

the oscillation part outputs oscillation signals of which frequencies are different to the plurality of sensor parts.

Assignments (4)
COMPANY SPLIT Recorded Sep 9, 2025
From: HITACHI HIGH-TECH SOLUTIONS CORPORATION
To: HITACHI HIGH-TECH CORPORATION
Reel/Frame 072888/0801 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Jun 21, 2022
From: HITACHI HIGH-TECH CORPORATION
To: HITACHI HIGH-TECH SOLUTIONS CORPORATION
Reel/Frame 060261/0488 →
MERGER Recorded Jun 21, 2022
From: HITACHI HIGH-TECH FINE SYSTEMS CORPORATION
To: HITACHI HIGH-TECH CORPORATION
Reel/Frame 060546/0001 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Jun 13, 2019
From: KAWABATA, RYUZO; SUZUKI, HIROSHI; YAMAMOTO, KENJI; KANDORI, AKIHIKO
To: HITACHI HIGH-TECH FINE SYSTEMS CORPORATION
Reel/Frame 049455/0165 →
Cited By (2)
US 12,392,756 US 12,422,328