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Interface Powers Smart Transportation Solutions

Smart transportation refers to integrating advanced technologies and intelligent systems in the transportation sector, including infrastructure and vehicles, improving efficiency, safety, and sustainability.

The transportation industry is getting smarter with advancements in autonomous driving and electric vehicles, unmanned aerial vehicles, electric airborne vehicles, high-speed trains and light rails, and transportation ways. Behind these innovations are critical test and monitoring solutions that help engineers ensure absolute safety and quality during development and in use for real-time monitoring.

Interface transducers measure force, torque, or weight for testing and integration into smart transportation systems. Our load cells, torque transducers, scales, load pins, tension links, and multi-axis sensors provide vital measurement data for design, development, testing, and performance monitoring in various smart transportation applications.

A few examples of smart transportation inventions and use cases that utilize Interface advanced sensor technologies include:

  • Smart Cargo Monitoring: Load cells are installed in trucks, trailers, or shipping containers to monitor the weight and distribution of cargo. These load cells provide real-time data on the load’s weight, ensuring compliance with weight limits and preventing overloading, which can lead to safety hazards and increased fuel consumption.
  • Structural Testing of Vehicles: During physical testing, load cells and torque transducers measure forces and loads applied to vehicle structures. This includes crash tests, structural integrity evaluations, and load capacity assessments. The data obtained helps engineers analyze vehicles’ structural performance and safety characteristics, enabling improvements in design and manufacturing processes for smart transport.
  • Infrastructure Load Data Acquisition: Load cells can be employed in roads, bridges, and other transport infrastructure as part of the load data acquisition systems. These systems measure the dynamic forces and loads experienced by vehicles. By attaching load cells to strategic points on the vehicle, such as suspension components or the chassis, engineers can capture data related to acceleration, braking, cornering forces, and road-induced vibrations. This information aids in vehicle development, durability testing, and optimization of suspension and chassis designs. They also help design durable civil engineering projects and infrastructure.
  • Intelligent Weighing Systems: Load cells can be incorporated into weighing systems at weigh stations or toll booths. By measuring the weight of vehicles passing through, these systems can accurately determine toll fees, enforce weight restrictions, and gather data for traffic management and planning purposes.
  • Smart Suspension Systems: Load cells are integrated into suspension systems of vehicles, such as trucks and buses, to monitor load distribution and adjust suspension settings accordingly. This helps optimize vehicle performance, enhance stability, and improve ride comfort.
  • Load Sensing Axles: Load cells can be installed in axles to measure the weight of individuals or sets of wheels. This information is crucial for load balancing, tire pressure monitoring, and detecting potential axle overload situations.

Since the beginning of “Smart Mobility,” Interface has supplied force-sensing solutions for electric or self-driving vehicles. Specifically in automotive, Interface has developed and supplied precision force and torque test and measurement systems that meet all components’ demands for superior testing requirements. The automotive market is subjected to extremely strict regulations. Therefore, testing and measurement are critical for safety, reliability, durability, and overall smart vehicle performance.

In the context of smart rail transport and railways, force measurement is crucial in testing and evaluating rail vehicles, including locomotives, passenger trains, and freight wagons. Load cells and force sensors are utilized in numerous ways. Load cells are used in braking systems to measure the forces exerted during braking maneuvers. This allows design engineers to assess the effectiveness of automated braking systems and ensure compliance with safety standards. The same types of sensors can be used to measure the vertical, lateral, and longitudinal forces acting on the bogies (wheelsets) of rail vehicles enabling smart operating conditional adjustments.

Smart Transportation Sensors for Stopping Train Derailment

Force measurement systems can measure the contact forces between the wheels and the track. This enables the assessment of wheel-rail interaction, including wheel-rail forces, lateral forces, and rolling resistance. Such data helps optimize track design, wheel profile selection, and maintenance practices to ensure safe and efficient railway operations. Our Pillow Block Load Bearing Load Cell is a great solution for monitoring trains on a track in motion. When our PBLC1 is installed on a track, and the train runs across it, the sensor can provide a signal to a station elsewhere in the world. If any force indicators suggest that there could be a problem with the weight the train is holding or the train itself, the sensor can also trigger an automatic shutdown of the train. These sensors could prevent major damage from train derailments and other train-related incidents by detecting errors before they inflict damage. This is a critically important application as innovators begin to release high-speed trains for cross-country travel.

Smart Trucking Weighing Solution

In this use case, a smart transportation trucking company truck company needs to record the weight or loads being carried precisely. They would like a wireless weighbridge to transmit, log, and display the results in real-time. Interface suggests installing multiple WTS 1200 LowProfile™ Load Cells under a weighing bridge. When a truck drives over it, the load cells will transmit the force results wirelessly to the WTS-BS-4 Industrial Base Station connected to the customer’s PC with the provided Log100 software. The WTS-LD2 Wireless Large LED Display can also display the weight inside of the driver monitor at all times.

Smart Vehicle Crash Walls

Improving vehicle safety is smart. Interface suggests using multiple 3A400 3-Axis Force Load Cells for this use case and attaching them to the back of a cement crash wall. When connected to the BX8-HD44 Interface BlueDAQ Series Data Acquisition System, force result measurements will be recorded and displayed on a computer. The sensors measure the force of impact for all their different vehicle crash testing demonstrations, providing high-accuracy data to make the vehicles safer.

Electric Vehicle Structural Battery Testing

As electric vehicles push advancements in efficiency gains, structural battery packaging is at the forefront for optimization in smart transportation. This drives the need to validate structural battery pack design in terms of life expectancy against design targets and crash test compliance and survivability.  Interface’s solution to this challenge included the 1100 Ultra-Precision LowProfile Load Cells in line with hydraulic or electromechanical actuators in the customer’s test stand. Also utilized were 6A 6-Axis Load Cells to capture reactive forces transmitting through pack structure. Multi-axis measurement brought greater system-level insight and improved product success. The structural tests validated the battery pack’s strong structural design using this solution.

Interface solutions for smart transportation are growing alongside the pace of innovation as we work with industry demands to provide solutions for what comes next.

Read more in our case study Interface’s Crucial Role in Vehicle and Urban Mobility Markets

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

Making Products Smarter with Interface OEM Solutions

Testing Labs Choose Interface High Accuracy Products

Modernizing Infrastructure with Interface Sensor Technologies

Interface’s Steering Role in All Types of Transportation

Interface Weighing Solutions and Complete Systems

EV Battery Testing Solutions Utilize Interface Mini Load Cells

Bridge Seismic Force Monitoring Solution App Note

IoT Drone Parcel Delivery

Testing for Commercial Drones and Parcel Delivery

 

Why Civil Engineers Prefer Interface Products

Infrastructure is one of the most vital industries that utilize Interface force measurement solutions. Our products are chosen for the design, engineering and construction of public works projects including roads, energy structures, bridges, dams, airports, sewage systems, and pipelines.

Civil engineering is a professional discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environments. It’s the oldest engineering discipline after military engineering, and it was specifically defined to distinguish non-military engineering from military engineering.

Civil engineering is traditionally broken into several sub-disciplines including environmental engineering, geotechnical engineering, structural engineering, transportation engineering, municipal or urban engineering, water resources engineering, materials engineering, coastal engineering, surveying, and construction engineering.

Civil engineers choose Interface sensors for testing structural components as well as for embedding sensors within buildings, waterways, and railways to ensure sustainable and safe construction, modifications, improvements, repairs and use.

Civil engineers’ relationship with and use of force measurement devices is based on two things: testing designs and monitoring completed projects.

Load cells are used from a test perspective throughout the development of infrastructure projects. For example, load cells test specific materials used in the construction of a building to ensure they can handle the required weights and environmental conditions. In the design of a drawbridge bridge, engineers use load cells to test the hydraulic system to ensure it will provide enough force to lift the bridge from a single time to thousands of times by using stress test rigs.

The use of various sensors and measurement devices in civil engineering and construction sectors has grown significantly in recent years. The sensor data from Interface load cells is utilized in every aspect, from rugged construction equipment for regulatory and safety monitoring to real-time quality monitoring of physical structures. One of the reasons is due to the advances in monitoring and reporting capabilities of sensor data. Accessibility to data has improved the ability to use it for complex calculations as well as analyze enormous amounts of output information in real-time. The benefits are improvements in structural designs and overall engineering as a result.

By accessing data remotely through Interface digital instrumentation products, those within the industry can deploy more practical solutions than were historically impossible during some of the original designs. This has transformed approaches to force measurement and load monitoring, providing robust calculations in structural and material engineering. This functionality is why civil engineering sectors rely on Interface for advanced products that deliver accurate, quality and reliable performance.

The following video highlights many products utilized in the infrastructure industry by civil engineers and for the equipment used in construction of their designs.

Force measurement is even used by civil engineers in testing the construction equipment used in a variety of infrastructure projects. One example of this is when Interface supplied a force measurement system to construction engineers to test an aerial lifts capabilities and capacities for safe use.

Aerial Lift Overload Control

A manufacturing company for aerial lifts wanted to test its self-propelled boom lift to ensure it can operate at heavy capacities when in use, and at different angles. They also wanted to prevent any accidents in case of a lifting overload, for the safety of any working individual who uses it. Interface’s solution was to attach the 3A160 3-Axis Force Load Cell to the bottom of the bucket of the boom lift. The 3A160 3-Axis Force Load Cell gave high accuracy results, which can be displayed using the 920i Programmable Weight Indicator and Controller in real time. The manufacturing company tested their aerial boom lifts and determined it was safely operable when maximum capacities had been reached.

Adversely, engineers are also designing force sensors into projects allowing them to monitor the effects of force on certain infrastructure over time. Take for example a project that Interface was involved in that required the monitoring of a bridge.

Bridge Seismic Force Monitoring Solution

A customer wanted to monitor seismic activity that occurred to a bridge by using force sensors, and then continuously monitor bridge forces before, during and after earthquakes. Engineers on the project also preferred a wireless solution so they would not need to run long cables on the bridge. Using Interface’s LP Load Pin custom made to fit their needs, along with Interface Inc. WTS Wireless Telemetry System, continuous force monitoring was able to take place without long cables. The engineers were then able to monitor continuous loads, log information to the cloud and review information, ensuring the bridge would uphold over time and constant seismic activity. Or, allowing engineers to determine when and where repairs are necessary.

Civil engineers represent the minds and hands building critical infrastructure. This is why Interface works closely with those in this profession to ensure our sensors provide the highest quality, accuracy and reliability to keep people safe and moving across our country. To learn more about our work in infrastructure, please visit our Interface Infrastructure Solutions.

Additional Resources

Interface and Infrastructure Markets Form a Perfect Partnership

Infrastructure Industry Relies on Interface Force Measurement

Interface Solutions Designed for Infrastructure Challenges

Infrastructure Projects Rely on Interface

Monitoring the Seismic Force of a Suspension Bridge

Infrastructure-Brochure-1

Infrastructure Industry Relies on Interface Force Measurement

The safety and stability of the structures and facilities that are used by towns, cities, organizations, governments and countries are essential to their successful operations. In the design and construction, it is a requirement to ensure that every component measures up to the standards that protect those that depend on their functionality.

Test and measurement are critical in every stage of any infrastructure project. Civil engineers, project managers, institutions, construction companies utilize sensor technologies today. This includes load cells, torque transducers, instrumentation, multi-axis sensors, load pins and load shackles and wireless technologies.  The infrastructure industry has long depended on Interface’s durable and reliable products for all types of projects, from early conception through maintenance.

Where are Interface infrastructure industry measurement solutions used today? Interface has been a supplier to entities around the world that are involved in every type of infrastructure projects including complex transportation systems, versatile communication structures that cross all types of terrain, water and electrical power sites, as well as new inventions that are used to build, support, and maintain various structures around the world.

Infrastructure Case Study

In our recent infrastructure case study, Infrastructure Projects Rely on Interface, we detail different use cases in the multi-trillion dollar global industry. There is no shortage of opportunity to invest in infrastructure and ensuring that every project meets the rigid regulatory requirements means a test plan is essential throughout the entire process.  Every test plan needs accurate and quality measurement solutions that are capable of structural monitoring, load bearing testing, vibrational monitoring, construction equipment and material testing use cases.

Here are just a few of the project types that depend on Interface solutions:

  • Roads, Streets and Highways
  • Waste Management
  • Mass Transportation Vehicles
  • Energy and Power Generation
  • Bridges and Tunnels
  • Railways
  • Airport Structures and People Movers
  • Dams and Water Supply
  • Telecommunications and Satellite

Beyond construction, Interface is supplying equipment manufacturers for use in construction and infrastructure maintenance projects. In the application note, Aerial Lift Overload Control, we provided a top manufacturing company for aerial lifts precision tools to test its self-propelled boom lift. The solution needed to ensure the lift could operate at heavy capacities when in use, and at different angles. The lift required a design that was proven to prevent any accidents in case of a lifting overload, for the safety of anyone working on or near the equipment. Interface proposed used our three multi-axis sensor model 3A160 3-Axis Force Load Cell to the bottom of the bucket of the boom lift. The 3A160 3-Axis Force Load Cell provides high accuracy and the measurements could be displayed using the 920i Programmable Weight Indicator and Controller in real time. The company was able to use these products to test their aerial boom lifts and determined it was safely operable at maximum capacities

You can get more insights on how we play a pivotal role in the infrastructure industry in these application notes and references:

Concrete Dam Flood Monitoring App Note

Hydropower Turbine Generator Monitoring App Note

Interface Solutions for Waste Management Applications

Force Measurement Solutions for the Construction Industry

Interface Crane Use Cases and Application Notes

Seismic Application for Interface Load Pins

Interface Solutions Designed for Infrastructure Challenges

Interface Infrastructure Case Study