In recent years the use of magnetic particle inspection (MT / MPI) of the railway train wearing and safety components – such as train axles and wheels – has increased significantly, so much so that many manufacturers all around the world use MT on a regular and extensive basis.

It is reasonable to assume that the elevated use of the non-destructive testing (NDT) techniques – especially MT – has been due to the rapid spread of “High Speed” train technology implemented in most countries.

In order to maintain a high level of passengers’ safety even at a speed over 300 km / h, “High Speed” trains necessarily require:

• higher quality and reliability of newly manufactured components
• increase in the number of the procedures for the revision of the components in use.

For this reason, the railway industry provides for precise operating procedures, which consist in establishing how to carry out the inspection following strict rules, making it as objective as possible and minimizing the operator’s discretion. This guarantees uniformity of inspection and, as a consequence, the possibility of making comparisons and compiling statistics.

Therefore, it is essential to reduce human error during inspection as much as possible: to address this issue, over the past years there have been significant improvements in the automatic applications used in MT systems.

The recent developments in the field of automation have led to IT implementation: all process data are collected and saved automatically in an MPI report, to ensure the reliability and quality of the parts manufactured.

All these factors have led CGM CIGIEMME S.p.A. – also in collaboration with its customers – to increase the production and design of MT systems with special features for the inspection of train wheels, axles and railway wheelsets.