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QUALITY
POLICY
To develop
safe, modern and cost effective Railway technology complying with Statutory and
Regulatory requirements, through excellence in Research, Designs and Standards
and Continual improvements in Quality Management System to cater to growing
demand of passenger and freight traffic on the railways.
QUALITY
OBJECTIVES FOR THE YEAR 2008- 09
QUALITY
ASSURANCE Hitherto, the
quality assurance function in respect of vendor approval and purchase
inspection of these items including publication of vendor directories was being
looked after by individual technical directorates of RDSO along with their
normal functions of research, development and standardization. To impart greater thrust to quality
assurance, Railway Board has approved the creation of a separate
Quality Assurance Organisation at RDSO in Sept.’ 2002
for Technical disciplines i.e. Mechanical Engg. Including M&C, Civil Engg.,
S&T & Electrical Engg. Each
headed by Executive Director under the overall charge of an HAG
officer. With the creation of this
Quality Assurance Organisation, focussed attention and close monitoring of
vendor approval and purchase inspection activities is being given.
FUNCTIONS
RDSO is
the sole R&D organisation of
Indian Railways and functions as the technical advisor
to Railway Board
Zonal Railways and
Production Units and performs
the following important functions :
- Development
of new and improved designs.
- Development,
adoption, absorption of new technology for use on Indian Railways.
- Development
of standards for materials and products specially needed by Indian Railways.
- Technical
investigation, statutory clearances, testing and providing consultancy
services.
- Inspection
of critical and safety items of rolling
stock, locomotives, signalling & telecommunication equipment and track components.
-
RDSO’s multifarious activities have also attracted
attention of railway
and non-railway organisations in India and
abroad.
GOVERNING COUNCIL
Governing
Council comprises of Chairman, Railway Board as Chairman; and Financial Commissioner, Member Engineering, Member Mechanical, Member
Staff, Member Electrical, Member Traffic, Addl. Member (Plg)/ Railway Board and
Director General, RDSO as
its members. The functions
of Governing Council
are:
- To
identify and approve the R&D projects for technology development on Indian
Railways.
- To review
the progress of projects.
- To
determine the quantum of direct investment in technology development
within the overall allocation of
funds under the plan head 'Railway Research'.
- To
give direction for improving the
working of RDSO.
CENTRAL BOARD
OF RAILWAY RESEARCH
Central
Board of Railway Research (CBRR) consist of DG/RDSO as Chairman, Addl. Member
(Civil Engg.), Addl. Member (Mechanical Engg), Addl. Member (Elect.), Addl.
Member (Sig), Addl. Member (traffic), Advisor (Finance), Executive Director
(E&R), Executive Director (Plg.)/Railway Board as members and Addl.
Director General/RDSO as member secretary.
Non- Railways members of CBRR consist of eminent scientists,
technologists, engineers and senior executives of other research organisations, academic institutions and industrial units related to railway
technology and materials. Functions of CBRR are:
- To
consider and recommend the programme of research on Indian Railways.
- To review
the research programme from time to time.
- To ensure
coordination and assistance from other research laboratories.
- To review
the ongoing projects from the technical angle.
INFRASTRUCTURE
RDSO
has a number of laboratories which are well equipped with research and testing
facilities for development, testing and design evaluation of various railway
related equipments and materials. Some
of these are:
Air
Brake Laboratory is equipped with facilities for simulating operation of air brakes
on freight trains up to 192 wagons and 3 locomotives as also for simulation of
passenger trains up to 30 coaches.
Brake
Dynamometer Laboratory has facilities to develop and test brake
friction materials for locomotives, coaches and wagons. A unique facility in
India
,
this laboratory has also been used by R&D organisations of Ministry of
Defence like DMRL, DRDL and HAL for indigenisation of brake pads for defence
aircraft.
B&S
Laboratory has a 6mx14m heavy/testing
floor on which full scale models of beam (spans up to 10 m, slabs, columns,
towers, shells and other components made of concrete, steel, brick etc can be
tested under static, dynamic or pulsating loads. A high frequency ranging
250-700 cycles/min pulsator for the application of a pulsating loads varying
from 2 to 20 tones and a maximum static load of 40 tonnnes on heavy duty
testing floor. The Laboratory is equipped with
analogue strain indicator, multi channel dynamic strain recording
system, switching & balancing units, acoustic emission equipment, data
acquisition system etc. for recording
various parameters.
Diesel
Engine Development Laboratory has four test beds capable of testing diesel engines from 100 to
6000 HP with fully computerized systems for recording of over 128 test
parameters at a time. This facility has already enabled RDSO to develop
technologies for improving fuel efficiency, reliability and availability of
diesel engines as well as to extract higher output from existing diesel
engines. Fatigue
Testing Laboratory
for testing prototype
locomotive and rolling stock bogies, springs and other railway equipments
subjected to stress and fatigue so as to ascertain their expected life in
service.
Geo-technical Engineering Laboratoryis equipped with
facilities for determining strength parameters of soil in lab and field
condition. The State-of-art Sub-surface Interface Radar (SIR) system, Laser based
soil particle analyser, and computerized consolidation test apparatus have been
installed in the lab. The lab also has computerised Static Triaxial Shear
apparatus for determining the strength of soil as well as the design of
embankment. Metallurgical
& Chemical Laboratory is capable of destructive and non-destructive testing of metals, polymers,
composites, petroleum products and paints for providing information to be used
in design and also for monitoring
performance of materials in service.
The
M&C laboratory include Scanning Electron Microscope, Direct reading spectrometer, Ultrasonic Flaw
Detector and other non destructive examination equipment, polymer and composite
evaluation facilities, thermal analyser, corrosion engineering evaluation
facilities including weather meter, static 760 hour AR test rig for grease
testing. V2F dynamic test rig for
grease testing, lube oil filter
evaluation rig Cetane rating
machine & 50t machine for rubber deflection characteristics.
Psycho-Technical
Laboratory for
assessment of critical psycho-physical attributes of operational staff such as
drivers, switchmen and station masters for efficient operation. The ergonomic laboratory of psycho-technical
Dte is also equipped with bio-feedback system for assessment of EMG, GSR
(Galvanic Skin Resistance) temperature, pulse and respiration rate & is
used for stress management exercises.
Signal
Testing Laboratory for testing of all types of signalling
equipments such as safety signalling relays, block instruments, power supply
equipments, point machines, signalling
cables, electro-mechanical signalling equipments/ components etc. There is an exclusive environmental
testing section equipped with environmental testing facilities as per ISO:9000. These include, programmable heat,
humidity & cold chambers, mould growth, dust, rain chambers. Signalling Equipment Development Centre has been
set up in the Signaling Lab. In this
Centre, working signaling equipment & systems have been set up. The working
systems include SSI, universal axle counter, VLSI axle counter, AFTCs, block
instruments etc. In addition, equipment
developed by RDSO, such as signalling relays, poly-carbonate lenses, LED signal
lamps, triple pole double filament lamps, power supply equipment etc., have
also been displayed. This centre will
be used for testing minor improvements in designs of SSI, axle counters etc.,
as well as for imparting training to newly inducted Inspectors.
Track Laboratory
for testing full scale track panel under dynamic load patterns
similar to those encountered in service.
Stresses at the various locations of track components under simulated
load conditions are measured and recorded for analysis. This has helped in rationalising and
optimising design of track structures
for Indian conditions. The facility of
fatigue testing of welded rail joints is also available. n
connection with joint research project of UIC on rail defect management, RDSO
has been entrusted with lab testing of rail samples from various world railways
under simulated loading conditions. Special
rail tensioning system for application of longitudinal forces on rail
samples to simulate the thermal forces of the field has indigenously been
developed, installed and commissioned in track lab. This system, with capacity
of up to 150 tonne in static condition, is being used to conduct testing of
different rail samples.
Mobile
Test Facilities
for recording of track parameters, locomotive power and conducting oscillograph
trials for evaluating vehicle-track interaction as also for monitoring track
conditions.
For
condition monitoring of OHE under live line and to facilitate directed
maintenance of electrification, a Network of testing and recording apparatus
(NETRA) car, first of its kind , developed by RDSO is actively in service for
scanning OHE in Railway.
Vehicle Characterisation Laboratory for conducting
vehicle characterisation tests on railway vehicles to study the
behaviour of suspension systems and to determine natural frequencies
Centre
for Advanced Maintenance Technology at
Gwalior for upgrading maintenance technologies, and methodologies. Also
to achieve improvements in productivity
and performance of all railway assets and manpower. This covers reliability,
availability, utilisation and efficiency.
LIBRARY
Considerable
efforts and resources were devoted on the
development of an outstanding
Library collection to meet the expanding needs of Research and Development. The
Library has more than 1.70 lakh volumes which includes books, reports,
specifications, and translations on
Science, Engineering, Technology, Management and Railways. About 100 technical
journals and magazines both Indian and foreign origin are received in the
Library regularly. |
