Pioneering inspection of railroad rails with eddy currents

Using a rail-inspection train, the Deutsche Bahn's system of railroads is continuously checked for traffic-induced defects. Until now, only ultrasonic inspection was used. In addition, eddy-current inspection could successfully and efficiently be used to detect and evaluate certain surface cracks - so-called head checks. There have already been reports about laboratory tests which proved the general suitability of this test method [1,2]. The next step - described here - consisted of practical trials under real-life conditions. A test system which is able to fulfil the strict requirements (test speeds of up to 100 km/h, complex probe guidance, suppression of electrical and mechanical interference, recording of data, filtering and evaluation of data) was developed. As part of the rail-inspection train and as a manual system, this inspection system was successfully tested on the Deutsche Bahn's system of railroads under real-life conditions.