General Electric Company

Progress Rail Services Corporation

Progress Rail Locomotive Inc.

Thomas Anthony Tougas

Harry Kirk Mathews, Jr

Michael Richard Durling

Robert William Tait

Huageng Luo

Benjamin Paul Church

Andrew Lawrence Ruggiero

Zongqi Sun

A profile monitoring system for a railroad car is provided. The profile monitoring system includes a fixture element configured to be coupled to a frame member at a predetermined location. The profile monitoring system also includes a tensioning device associated with the fixture element. The tensioning device is configured to be coupled to one end of a wire or cable, wherein the tensioning device is configured to maintain a predetermined tension in the wire or cable. The profile monitoring system further includes a sensing device coupled to the tensioning device, the sensing device is configured to sense a change in a tension in the wire or cable. The profile monitoring system includes a triggering module communicably coupled to the sensing device, the triggering module is configured to trigger an alarm based on the change in the tension in the wire or cable.

Profile monitoring system

An apparatus and methods for identifying a defect and/or an operating characteristic of a system being monitored (and/or one or more of the system's components) are described. In an embodiment, orthogonally related data monitored by two or more detectors may be fused to determine whether a component of a system is defective and/or malfunctioning. Additionally or alternatively, data from a first detector may be determined to be accurate using non-orthogonally related data outputted by a second detector. Both types of determinations may be made with minimal or no false indications, which lowers the cost of operating the system being monitored. Embodiments of the invention may also be configured to forecast and/or prevent accidents and/or damage to the system being monitored by predicting whether a defect and/or a malfunction will occur.

Apparatus and method for identifying a defect and/or operating characteristic of a system

Growing community of inventors

Lee's Summit, MO, United States of America

Thomas Anthony Tougas