At present there are no existing bearing health monitoring systems capable of continuous
monitoring and tracking of railroad bearings on freight cars. Current wayside equipment is
used to garner intermittent bearing cup temperatures, which at times could be every 65 km
(∼ 40 mi) or more. Such devices are not designed to provide continuous condition
monitoring which would enable users to assess the rate of bearing health degradation and
predict when a bearing will require service. To this end, IONX, LLC, a subsidiary of Amsted …

At present there are no existing bearing health monitoring systems capable of continuous
monitoring of railroad bearings. Current wayside equipment is used to collect intermittent
bearing temperatures, which at times could be every 65 km (∼ 40 mi). To answer this need,
IONX, LLC, a subsidiary of Amsted Rail, Inc., has developed low power Wireless Sensor
Nodes (WSNs) which can be retrofitted to existing bearing adapters. The WSNs provide
continuous monitoring of bearing temperatures as well as the current ambient temperature …