System and method for detecting axle body and filet cracks in rail vehicles

A system for detecting a presence of a defect in a target axle of a freight car wheelset in-service, comprising:

• a projector configured to project a plurality of lines onto a surface of a wheel attached to the target axle at at least one point in a revolution of the wheel;
• a memory having a first database with configuration parameters related to operations of the system;
• and
• a computer processor operably coupled to the memory and capable of executing machine-readable instructions to perform program steps, the program steps including:
• measuring a distance between a first line of the plurality of lines and a second line of the plurality of lines;
• determining a camber angle of the wheel at the at least one point in a revolution of the wheel based, at least in part, on the measured distance between the first line of the plurality of lines and the second line of the plurality of lines;
• determining a defect is present in the target axle when the camber angle of the wheel at a first of at least one point in a revolution of the wheel is larger than a predetermined threshold angle;
• and
• transmitting an alert in response to a determination that the defect is present in the target axle.

A system for detecting a presence of a defect in a target axle of a freight car wheelset in-service, comprising:

• a projector configured to project a plurality of lines onto a surface of a wheel attached to the target axle at at least one point in a revolution of the wheel;
• a memory having a first database with configuration parameters related to operations of the system;
• and
• a computer processor operably coupled to the memory and capable of executing machine-readable instructions to perform program steps, the program steps including:
• measuring a camber angle of a wheel attached to the target axle at one or more points of the plurality of points in a revolution of the wheel;
• determining whether a defect is present in the target axle based on the camber angle of the wheel at each point of the plurality of points in the revolution of the wheel around the target axle, wherein determining whether a defect is present in the target axle includes determining whether a camber angle of the wheel at one or more points of the plurality of points in the revolution of the wheel is larger than a predetermined threshold angle;
• and
• transmitting an alert in response to a determination that the defect is present in the target axle.

A system configured to provide in-service inspection of rail car axles, comprising:

• a projector configured to transmit a plurality of objects onto different points of a surface of a wheel at a first point in a revolution of the wheel about an axle;
• a data collector configured to collect data associated with objects projected onto the surface of the wheel by the projector at any point of the revolution of wheel;
• and
• a server, operably coupled to the data collector, and configured to measure the camber angle of the wheel based on the data and determine whether a defect is present in the axle based on the measured camber angle of wheel, wherein determining whether a defect is present in the axle includes determining whether the camber angle of the wheel at a first of the at least one point in the revolution of the wheel is larger than a reference camber angle by a threshold value, the reference camber angle representing a camber angle of a wheel attached to a undefective axle.