Impact case study database

Published Areal Surface Standards (ISO 25178 - Part 2, Part 3, Part-71)

Three parts of the standards on areal surface characterisation [ISO 25178 series] resulted from the research [1-6]. Two were drafted by Paul Scott and one on areal surface software standards was drafted by Jane Jiang: The Draft International Standards (DIS) were voted by country representatives by 18/18 (Part 2, *Doc N1015, 2008), 18/19 (Part 3, *Doc N1129, 2008) and 17/18 (Part 71, Doc *N1182, 2010) Countries; and the Final Draft International Standards (FDIS) were voted by country representatives by 21/21 (Part 2, *Doc 1368, 2011)), 19 /19 (Part 3, *Doc N1480,2011) and 18/18 (Part 71, *Doc N1539, 2012) Countries [E1]. As a result, ISO 25178-2 Geometrical Product Specification (GPS) – Surface Texture: Areal - Part 2: Terms, Definitions and Surface Texture Parameters (2012); Part 3: Operators (2012); and Part 71: Software measurement Standards (2012) were published by the International Organization for Standardization, Geneva [E2, E3].

The new standards were adopted from 2014 onwards by all OEM manufacturers of ISO compliant surface measurement equipment, influencing metrology across a wide range of manufacturing industries. The Lead Standards Development Manager at BSI wrote: “The work from the Huddersfield team has been fundamental in the wide acceptance of ISO standards worldwide and has facilitated the impact of the GPS standard ethos across wide swathes of manufacturing engineering” [E4]. Up to now, ISO 25178 Part 2 and Part 3 [E2] have had more than 4000 citations (Google Scholar). Based on the standards, interoperability was enabled along engineering supply chains that needed to share consistent surface metrology protocols. This accelerated, and lowered the cost of innovation, and resulted in commercial benefits for (i) businesses that provide measurement technology, (ii) companies that manufacture products that rely on consistency in surface functionality and (iii) consumers.

Note: *Doc N1015, *Doc N1129 and *Doc N1182 see Page 7,12, 17 of [E1]; *Doc N1368, *Doc N1480 and Doc *N1539 see Page 5,10,15 of [E1].

Commercial Impact for Suppliers of Metrology Instrumentation

During the course of the research and subsequent standards development, the Huddersfield team worked with leading suppliers of surface metrology instruments and software developers to ensure the outputs were industrially applicable. The ISO standard has superseded any proprietary software they may have developed historically.

Digital Surf

Digital Surf specialised in manufacturing 3D non-contact laser profilometers. From 2014 it began to use the output of the SURFSTAND project and the ISO standards to develop a surface analysis software package, MountainsMap®, and since then it has incorporated developing ISO standards into it. Today, Digital Surf’s Mountains® software provides visualization, analysis and reporting tools for data output to a wide range of commercial profilometers and microscopes. Since 2016 the company has outsourced the development of many of its updated algorithms to the University of Huddersfield (UoH). Following the success of Digital Surf, many metrology instrument companies (including larger ones such as Bruker, Zeiss, Nikon and Taylor Hobson) no longer develop “in house” areal software but instead use the Mountains® package. It is now embedded in the equipment of the majority of profilometer (40+) and scanning probe / scanning electron microscope manufacturers (10) and it provides software for 80% of the world market in the field. MountainsMap® has an installed base of 12,000+ licenses worldwide and fully supports the ISO 25178 standards. The VP of Digital Surf confirmed, “The embedding of this research into our products, [..], was a key factor for the Company to develop market leadership and achieve an extremely diverse user-base worldwide, in the profilometry market. Digital Surf is doing around 4 million euros of sales per year, 75% of which is on the profilometry market, which is the main market concerned by ISO parameters and filtration” [E5].

Since 2017 the Huddersfield team has supported the development of new software modules for Digital Surf’s next generation software, MountainsMap® 8. Since the release of the new software version in 2019, sales have gone well (licenses sold per annum (>1,200)). Digitalsurf’s mid-range software retailed for approximately €15,000 in 2020 and the company estimated the increase in turnover to be €20M linked to the underpinning research. In 2019 Digital Surf developed a new version of MountainsMap® moving from a grid representation of surface to a triangular mesh (based on book produced at UoH ISBN 9780128218150 and papers, e.g. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.measurement.2017.05.028\). This has opened new markets, such as in the area of x-ray computer tomography (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.precisioneng.2016.12.008\). As a result Huddersfield has expanded its formal research contract with Digital Surf to develop new modules for MountainsMap® (MESHSURF) under the University of Huddersfield and Digitalsurf Agreements: Phase I (signed 20th December 2019) & Phase II (signed 11th November 2020). The Technical Director at Digital Surf stated, “We recognise Huddersfield’s continued world-leading position in surface metrology research and the value that we as a business can gain from maintaining a close and mutually beneficial collaboration” [E5].

Bruker Alicona

Bruker Alicona provides optical industrial measurement technology for the quality assurance of complex components used in the automotive industry. Its core competence is the measurement of dimension and surface topography; this is based on focus variation. Since 2008 the company has developed its software to incorporate algorithms extracted from the ISO standards into its products. The Head of R&D said “around 15% of our customers use surface roughness with their instruments…a core element of our analysis capability within our software makes use of the research carried out by the Huddersfield team on areal roughness parameters” [E6].

Commercial Impact for Industry End-Users

The end users of the research output cover a wide range of industries. Examples are given below:

Volvo: used the research in its development of IC engines with reduced emissions. The Company Surface Engineering Specialist for Cylinder Liners stated, “in this area, the use of areal roughness parameters has been a core tool in understanding engine performance, engine wear and consequent emissions [..] we have now written their application into our company standards” [E7].

Sarclad: is the world’s leading producer of Electrical Discharge Roll Texturing (EDT) machines, which are used in the automotive industry to make sheet metal easier to form and paint. The Head of R&D wrote, “Textured sheet metal using EDT is specified by all major automotive OEMs as a means of improving formability of sheet [..] the continued success of our Rolltex product range is helped significantly by the ISO 25178 areal surface measurement characterisation and the underpinning work of the Huddersfield team” [E8].

DePuy Synthes: is a world leading bio-implant manufacturer. Surface roughness is a key determinant of how successfully a surgical implant (e.g. replacement hip joint) bonds/integrates with the patient’s bone and also the life of the joint bearing surfaces. The DePuy Testing Laboratory Manager commented, “Areal surface roughness parameters developed at [UoH] are of great importance to our industry and the development of new orthopaedic implants. [..]. The research conducted at the University of Huddersfield has helped shape ISO 25178 that is widely used in our industry” [E9].

Digital Metrology: has provided independent consultancy on surface metrology for over 30 years, mainly in the USA. Its President confirmed, “Without the underpinning work on parameters at Huddersfield, the field of areal surface metrology would have been significantly delayed and would certainly have been disparate and where adopted, would have been utilized within individual silos minimizing its impact and usefulness in innovation and international trade” [E10].

The research findings benefited businesses and users across the machine-tool supply chain. They enabled the introduction of new products and services and changed professional practice through better and cheaper calibration methodologies. They delivered over £90m of benefit to industry.

The impacts can be summarized under three headings:

1. Influence on new product development

2. New revenue streams for providers of services to machine-tool users

3. Changing professional practice for users of machine tools

Influence on New Product Development

Renishaw is a manufacturer of products for the calibration and regular checking of machine tools, enabling users to establish and maintain their performance. The research [R1] proved that a laser system, developed as a Quality Assurance device for internal use, would work as part of a new solution for the calibration of machine tools. An understanding of the benefits of rapid calibration [R 2,3] led the company to commercialize it as the XM60 multi-axis calibrator.

UoH research strongly influenced the development of the product. The Business Manager in the Laser and Calibration Products Division wrote, “You [..] show[ed] that a three-axis machine tool can have all its linear axes calibrated within one hour, highlighting a competitive edge of our new product. You also devised scientific methods [..] in order to help our own exploitation plan”. The product was launched in 2016 and in 2020 he confirmed that: “Global sales of the XM60 now make up a significant proportion of the revenue generated from calibration product range” [a].

Dapatech Systems was established in 2011 to commercialize new technologies for machine-tool accuracy, compensation and monitoring. It used the research findings to develop a low-cost, mass-producible thermal compensation product (the iTEC). UoH researchers identified where to locate the temperature sensors and how to connect them to the machine tools [R6]. By using iTEC to remove the need for machine warm-up cycles (that can “cost” 30 mins to two hours of productive machining time per day), customers could save significant costs. The MD of Dapatech wrote, “For customers with many hundreds (or even thousands) of machines, using iTEC in this way will save tens of thousands of machining hours each year” [c] (2020). The company has demonstrated the product to customers in the UK, North America, South America and South East Asia and has generated interest from large volume manufacturers of consumer electronics and for high-precision applications in the aerospace sector. The MD added, “This opens up a huge market opportunity for the company” [c]. Although the Covid-19 pandemic slowed progress, he reported, “In 2019 we had negotiated an initial order with one partner for the first 1,000 systems, with the potential for this to rapidly grow to orders of tens of thousands of systems over a 2-3 year period [..] Currently we are negotiating a contract for the delivery of 1500 iTEC Systems to an OEM” [c].

New Revenue Streams for Providers of Services to Machine-Tool Users

MTT (Machine Tool Technologies) is a high-end provider of calibration and other services to users of precision machine tools. It worked closely with the UoH team to develop the early research [R1] into a high-end maintenance offering. MTT used the measurement toolkit created during the SAMULET project, including the Renishaw XM60 and the error modelling methods [R2, 4, 6], to provide rapid calibration services (2014–20). The MD of MTT stated, “[..] in the period 2014–2020 our relationship has facilitated an additional £7m of sales for MTT, as well as creating four directly related jobs”. MTT created training courses in collaboration with the researchers. These were delivered to 12 of their engineers and 30 of their customers. The MD added, “This [..] led to these “intelligent customers” improving their processes, which generated revenue [..] of another £1.5m” [b] (2020).

Accudyne Europe Ltd, in conjunction with their USA based parent company, Accudyne

Systems, Inc.is a manufacturer of Automated Fibre Placement (AFP) heads that are used to lay composite materials, such as carbon fibre. The head must be mounted on a carrier machine which, for challenging applications where materials are laid with extreme curvature, had to be extremely rigid, and was consequently expensive to buy and run. Working with MTT (2016) on instruments and processes developed using the research [R1,2], the company was able to move to a lightweight and cost-effective carrier. Crucially, the new measurement methods let Accudyne prove to potential customers that their new machine was fit for purpose. The methods also provided a reliable solution for regular machine maintenance with reduced downtime. This led to “a new product line, which has already realized turnover of £7.5M and cemented [Accudyne’s] competitive foothold in a strategically important customer base” [d]. It estimated that customers are saving £250k on every machine by using their more cost-effective solution and £50k pa from additional uptime [d] (2020).

Changing Professional Practice for Users of Machine-Tools

The SAMULET program targeted the development of a high-speed machine-tool calibration and verification system. Rolls-Royce (RR) commissioned UoH to define requirements in terms of measurement accuracy, data quality, protocol optimization and evaluation of uncertainty. This led to an anticipated downtime reduction from 2.5 days to a single eight-hour shift, is estimated to save £150k per annum at one site [e], and verifiably improved quality. One RR site adopted the method on 100 machines and the Process Owner at RR confirmed that related “[..] operations implemented to date, demonstrated 100% conforming parts. Thus we have had zero rework and salvages" [e] (2020).

The impact has extended to users of the Renishaw XM60 product, who have been able to reduce the costs of their calibration activities. Renishaw’s Business Manager stated, “Users [..] can also perform full 3D characterisation of the linear axes in one fifth of the time previously required. This significantly reduces the machine downtime and increases the capability of maintenance programs. Combined, this allows the equipment to pay for itself in under 12 months when compared with traditional systems” [a] (2020). This is in line with UoH research [R5].

MTT estimated that the improved calibration services they now deliver have provided significant benefits to their customers, including lower machine-tool downtime and more products manufactured within specification. MTT’s MD wrote that its customers have enjoyed benefits amounting to “c. £70m in the period 2014-2020” in sectors such as aerospace, Formula 1 racing and manufacturing for the MoD [b] (2020).

Since 2013, the UoH team have shared the nature of the research findings and best practice for their application with companies across precision engineering. MTT, Rolls Royce, Dapatech and the Manufacturing Technologies Association (MTA) all cite the knowledge transfer as a key enabler of improvements in professional practice.

The CEO of the MTA commented that the “upskilling employees and improving the quality of the high precision end of machine tools” that has been made possible by the UoH research has been vital to the development of the UK precision-engineering sector and his own organization. He added: “Your work also led to advanced training courses, which two members of our technical team undertook in early 2019. This was invaluable in upskilling our employees, who have as a result been able to offer a more in-depth [..] service to our members” [f] (2020).

The MTA noted that the impact of the research has led to the UoH team being instrumental in the UK’s contribution to international standards in machine-tool accuracy. In its 2018 report on the impact of manufacturing, authored by Oxford Economics, it estimated that GVA per job is £65,000 in the engineering subsector, which is 15% higher than the UK average. It added, “Your research has directly led to more efficient working in this high-value sector” [f].

The research led to impact on rail operators and their customers in the UK and across Europe, by improving safety (and punctuality) across the networks. European railway policy was also influenced.

The impacts can be summarized under four headings:

1. Reduction in missed red signals

2. Extracting safety lessons from close calls

3. Preparing for digital risk management

4. Policy influence

Reduction in Missed Red Signals

The research on modelling the prevalence of SPADs [R4,5] was game-changing. For the first time, it was demonstrated that it is possible to replace statistical models, with measurements of actual train behaviour across the UK network. The Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) used the Institute of Railway Research (UoH-IRR) algorithms to develop its own tool to exploit the data. The Risk Aspect Approaches to Signals (RAATS) tool was published through a web service in 2019 [E6], thus making it possible for anyone working on the railways to benefit from superior insights into “a significant safety risk to the railway” [E6]. The web service has had 200 registered users since it was launched, which is the equivalent of about three registered users from each of the over 60 UK train operating companies.

Railway operators used the tool in two ways. Planners used it to identify pinch points on the network (where a high volume of trains approach a signal when it is red) and then planned these situations out of the timetable. This greatly reduced SPAD risk and improved the overall flow of traffic on the network, thus increasing punctuality [E7]. The punctuality improvement is significant because each “delay minute” costs a rail operator up to £3,000. Safety practitioners used the tool to analyse data collected on the frequency of SPADs, to understand the underlying probability of a potentially dangerous red signal approach and whether this was a contributory factor to the SPAD event.

The addition of new, direct from trains, data to the model [R6] isolated two types of red aspect approaches that are particularly dangerous (i) green-light gambling (assuming that the signal will clear in time) and (ii) slippery conditions. Such data is now used by risk analysts at RSSB, Network Rail and other GB railway operators. RSSB stated that “without the research from the IRR this advancement would not have been possible”’ and that “the benefits in reduction in safety risk, both now and in the future, [..] would not have been realised” [E7] (2020).

Extracting Safety Lessons from Close Calls

The structured investigation [R1] and automated classification of close-call data using Natural Language Processing (NLP) [R2,3] has been used in non-standard risk assessments by RSSB. It reported that the data helped to identify risks that were undervalued by the traditional “triage” process. For example, the RSSB’s Professional Head of Safety and Intelligence highlighted its role in identifying, for the first time, risks in relation to vegetation management on slopes [E7]. The method was also used for monitoring purposes [R2] to classify how safety risks increased or decreased over time. RSSB has used the tool to analyse over a million records, stating it “enables rapid interrogation of the data” and “delivers structured results that can more readily support robust and actionable changes to safety practices” [E7]. Similar work was continued by RSSB, as demonstrated in its 2019 report T1152 [E8].

The chair of the steering committee for the strategic partnership that oversaw the research, worked for Network Rail (NR), and encouraged NLP development because of the improvements in speed and accuracy of risk identification that the techniques delivered. The IRR developed a bespoke text-analysis tool for NR, called C-CAT. It used text analysis to classify 300,000 close-call records against 26 risk categories. NR had a team of 30 full-time employees analysing the reports and by removing the need for humans to read every single report, the analysis time was greatly reduced. Importantly C-CAT also helped re-classify the 30% of entries that were unintentionally reported in the “general” category [E9], hence automating the correction of 300,000 entries (2018).

In Spain, the national railway operator, RENFE, reported, “we are investing [..] EUR 0.25m in the development of a ‘close call’ reporting system that utilises the ontology and data processing techniques based on the IRR research” [E5].

Preparing for digital risk management using the BowTie tool

The research findings on the BowTie tool [R5] demonstrated ways to populate commercial risk BowTies with consistent railway-specific data, gathered from disparate automated sources.

LNER worked with IRR to upgrade their safety management system. They are now recognized as having the leading BowTie experts on the GB railways and this is evidenced by their bow-tie manual [E10], which is used across the sector. LNER’s use of advanced digitally enabled BowTie software for its safety management system has provided it with unprecedented oversight of operational risks.

The French railway company SNCF started a digital programme in France in 2016. Adding their own digital developments to the IRR foundation, they initiated a national safety programme called “Prisme”. The Head of SNCF Railway System Safety stated, “The research from IRR and the development of the bowtie tool allow SNCF to better identify where to invest funds to improve, or maintain, safety of operations”. He added, “Without the research from IRR, this improvement would not have happened!” [E4].

In 2019, RENFE in Spain started building a new safety system based on BowTies. Their Head of Safety said, “IRR research on the use of bowtie analyses in safety management systems has been adopted by RENFE and we are now working [..] on a EUR 1M two-year project to connect our operational processes and procedures with safety controls defined within a bowtie analysis” [E5].

IRR researchers spoke at a number of industry-specific BowTie events, which led to an increase in sales [E10] for the organizations that licensed the technology, such as LNER, RSSB and CGE-Risk (a provider of BowTie software).

Policy Influence

The European Railway Agency (ERA) participated at the BDRA (Big Data Risk Analysis) symposia in Huddersfield (2016 and 2017) [E1] and invited the University of Huddersfield to be the only academic partner in their four workshops on the digitization of railways (2016–18). ERA acknowledged the input from UoH workshops on their policy, in their reports [E2, E3].

The research generated novel methods to improve the spatial impression (a sense of the relative positions of sound sources and perceived spaciousness) of recorded 3D sounds, whilst reducing the microphone array size significantly compared to conventional methods. Four different 3D microphone arrays were developed and these were exploited by the sound-recording industry for improved 3D music recording (a radio station and a classical music concert), outdoor recording (a microphone manufacturer and a TV station) and for virtual reality music recording (a recording studio and a VR content production company).

The impacts can be summarized under three headings:

1. Influencing the design of a commercial 3D audio microphone array.

2. Enhancing immersive sound recording techniques.

3. Improving the realism of recorded classical music.

The research findings led to talks and workshops on 3D audio at international conferences, including Audio Engineering Society (AES) Conference on Spatial Reproduction (2018). These resulted in industry interest and subsequent adoption of the new approaches.

Influencing the Design of a Commercial 3D Audio Microphone Array

Schoeps is a best-in-class Germany-based manufacturer of microphones for sound professionals. Their microphone array product, the ORTF-3D, was completely redesigned in 2016 based on consultation with Lee, which applied the main findings of three papers [R1, 2, 3]. Before redesign, the array had a cube-like form factor and its large size made it impractical for sound engineers to carry and install easily. This was a particular problem for outdoor location recording and broadcasting environments, such as music concerts and sports events. The company said UoH research “helped [it] to identify crucial and non-crucial aspects of microphone array geometry and the extent to which certain design parameters influence spatial perception” [S1]. As a result, the research “significantly influenced the design of 3D audio microphone arrays at Schoeps” [S1] and led to a new version of the ORTF-3D that was much more compact. The vertical microphone spacing was reduced to zero, which reduced the size and weight of the unit without affecting its performance. This gave users benefits in terms of portability, set-up time and health and safety. ORTF-3D won the prestigious TEC Award for its innovative design during the 32^nd NAMM Show (the world’s largest music products trade fair) in 2017 ( tecawards.org/tec-winners).

The new version of ORTF-3D was rapidly adopted and used for broadcasting a number of major musical and sports events, such as the BBC Proms (2016–2019), FIFA World Cup (2018), and the French Open (2018–2019). The BBC’s Technical Producer, responsible for recording and broadcasting the BBC Proms concerts, stated that ORTF-3D provided “flexibility when mixing and better spatial impression than Ambisonics and other coincident mic arrays” [S2]. The sound engineer who was in charge of capturing the crowd sounds of the 2018 Russia World Cup football matches for HBS (a Swiss sports broadcaster) worldwide broadcasting, testified that ORTF-3D “played a major role in delivering excellent immersiveness and precise localisation for crowd sounds in 3D… which would have not been possible with a conventional microphone array like First-Order Ambisonics”. He said that the microphone array provided “a far better sense of envelopment and a more accurate localisation as well as a larger listening area, which is of paramount importance for TV viewers” [S3].

Enhancing Immersive Sound Recording Techniques

The reputation of the UoH APL 3D audio research led to consultancy on immersive sound recording techniques with Abbey Road Studios (London), one of the most famous recording studios in the world. The UoH-developed ESMA-3D microphone array [R4] was introduced to Abbey Road through a collaborative project in 2017. Since that time it has become the studio’s go-to microphone array for various types of 3D recording [S4]. One example was a large orchestral recording session for the Electronic Arts’ computer game, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, which was performed by London Symphony Orchestra [S4, S5]. The award-winning recording and mixing engineer who worked on the session became “a fan of the array from the initial experiment sessions for the game conducted in March 2019” [S4]. The excellent 360° imaging the array offered, led him to develop a new way to bridge the sonic gap between the strings and the woodwinds, which produced impressive results [S4]. The Head of Audio Product at Abbey Road stated that “of all the arrays I have tried over the last couple of years, ESMA-3D is the most useful and sonically pleasing microphone array with versatile end user applications from stereo to 5.1 and Ambisonics to Dolby Atmos” [S4]. ESMA-3D has also become an essential tool to “glue various performers in the room into a cohesive acoustic fingerprint” in Abbey Road’s pioneering work on six-degrees-of-freedom virtual reality (VR) audio, which adds in a representation of body movement to the standard three degrees used in conventional VR [S4]. ESMA-3D was also “the backbone” of a VR experience created for Highways England (HE) [S6] by MagicBeans, a start-up dedicated to providing highly immersive virtual and augmented reality experiences. It recorded various types of motorway traffic noise using the array and used the recordings to create an immersive training environment for roadside workers using VR (2019). The CEO of MagicBeans said that “the imaging stability and sweet spot with ESMA-3D is so much better and larger than with a comparable Ambisonic recording, and the spaciousness and timbre of the ESMA-3D recordings are far better”. He added, “We would not have been able to provide this large-scale sound experience without this manner of recording being pioneered by Dr. Lee …. [it is] a significant step forward in making high quality 3D captures practical and useful” [S6].

Improving the Realism of Recorded Classical Music

Central Sound (CS), an award-winning audio production service, is part of Arizona PBS (Public Broadcast Service). It specializes in capturing acoustic music performances for broadcast. The PCMA-3D microphone array [R1] helped CS to reach their goal of a “quintessential sound” in their immersive recordings for the Grammy-Award-winning Phoenix Chorale and Grammy-nominated True Concord Voices and Orchestra in 2019 [S7]. Having moved away from the ‘trial and error’ approach, their chief recording engineer and manager said “the test methodology Dr Lee has employed gives us confidence that we are utilising proven techniques” [S7].

The Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF) was the first public broadcaster in Europe to start a 5.1 surround sound service and their senior sound engineer was one of the pioneers in 5.1 surround recording. He explored new techniques for outdoor 3D audio recording for broadcast and, working with Lee, developed a new 3D microphone array (2018) [S8]. Named the Double UFIX it used the novel UoH localization prediction model [R5] and the associated iOS/Android MARRS app [R6]. The ORF engineer said that the UoH research “significantly increased sense of realism or an even more convincing illusion of the resulting sounds” [S8].

The app provided “an intuitive way to derive tailormade microphone arrangements for specific recording situations” [S8]. It helped sound recording engineers achieve their goals for accurate and spacious imaging in recording, by visualizing the virtual sound images resulting from different microphone configurations. Compared to other similar tools, MARRS helped them produce results more quickly, accurately and reproducibly. The app is currently used by 600+ users worldwide. The Director of Recording and Music Technology at The Tianjin Juilliard School for musicians in China has used MARRS as a starting point of microphone placement for many of his professional recording sessions, including Peabody Symphony Orchestra and Tianjin International Chamber Music Festival [S9]. He stated that, “it saves me a lot of time in correctly configuring a microphone array and achieving an accurate stereo imaging, thanks to the accurate sound image visualization and the powerful parameter control options it provides” [S9].

The research findings have led to impact on the UK rail and tram networks for passengers and operators. Government policy on tram-train transportation systems and national railway standards were influenced.

The impacts can be summarized under three main headings:

1. Improvements to public transport in Sheffield and plans to replicate the model

2. Enabling the use of a cost-effective wheel maintenance procedure

3. Commercial exploitation by train operators

Improvements to Public Transport in Sheffield and Plans to Replicate the Model

The research [3.5], undertaken as part of a £125m Department of Transport tram-train pilot study, developed a tram-train wheel profile that was subsequently tested on the Sheffield tram-train scheme operated by Stagecoach. Stagecoach stated that “without this work and the identification of a wheel profile that would allow dual operation of a tram on both a street network and a heavy network, it is highly unlikely that Network Rail would have allowed street trams to operate on its network” [5.1].

The economic benefits from the new scheme have helped to regenerate Sheffield City Centre and reduced congestion on the existing road and rail networks, through increased capacity by utilizing existing infrastructure [5.2, 5.3]. The route was opened in October 2018, running three services an hour between Sheffield and Rotherham Parkgate. Seven new vehicles were built and fitted with the new wheel profiles. In 2019 Stagecoach announced: “the route has been in operation for over 12-months and has delivered more than 1,000,000 passenger journeys” [5.2]. The Sheffield tram-train scheme also achieved a 100% customer satisfaction record in its first year of operation as recorded by Transport Focus (the independent watchdog for transport users) [5.2]. In addition, the Senior Engineer- Light Rail, Network Rail, stated that: “no unusual behaviour of track or vehicle has been experienced” on the network between Tinsley and Rotherham Parkgate, despite the increased usage due to the new tram-train service [5.4].

The research has also informed the wider strategic testing and development of tram-train technology for subsequent roll-out across the UK. Following the success of the Sheffield tram-train scheme, Network Rail have confirmed that further ”tram-train schemes are now being actively pursued by a number of UK Authorities” [5.4], with “over ten transport authorities, including Manchester, Birmingham, Glasgow and Cardiff, seeking to create their own tram-train service” [5.3]. These will improve transport links and reduce congestion on the existing UK road and rail networks.

Enabling the Use of a Cost-Effective Wheel Maintenance Procedure

As a result of this research [3.4, 3.6] Economic Tread Turning (ETT) was incorporated into the Railway Group Standard GMRT2466 issue 4.1 (2019). The Chairman of the Industry Wheelset Management Group and Engineering Manager at Avanti West Coast, confirmed that “of particular significance, is the [UoH] work [..] which has demonstrated quite significant cost savings for the industry”. He also comments that “these changes have been adopted through revision of the Standard GMRT2466 issue 4.1. The research can therefore enable significant potential savings in both track and train maintenance costs” [5.6]. The Principal Vehicle Systems Engineer, Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB), added “ETT formed a significant part of the revised content and covers its application, geometry and service limits.” [5.7] The standard (GMRT2466), and accompanying Rail Industry Standard for Wheelsets (RIS-2766-RST, 2017), refers directly to a report [5.7] published by UoH (2017), which, along with the research described in [3.6], established the confidence that a range of flange widths could be selected by operators and maintainers while remaining safe and compatible with the infrastructure. In 2016, the researcher (Muhamedsalih) was awarded the ‘Rail Research UK Association / Institute of Mechanical Engineers’ Young Researcher of the Year Award ( Ground breaking research dispels UK myths around ETT) for the research work into ETT on GB Railways [3.6]. The award panel concluded that “this research provides valuable and strong evidence to support the case that train operators should be allowed to implement ETT policies and will provide the opportunity to exploit the cost savings associated with ETT without a significant detrimental effect on the infrastructure over which they operate”. These cost savings are estimated by RSSB to be between £880k and £5.1m per year across the GB passenger train fleet [5.8].

The research outputs on wheel profiles and ETT [3.1, 3.6] were trialled in 2017 by Alstom on the Class 390 train fleet operating on the West Coast Mainline, in an attempt to extend wheelset re-profiling intervals and reduce the cost of maintenance. As detailed by the Wheelsets and Components Engineer, Alstom have seen a “13% increase in re-profiling intervals, from 310,000 miles to over 350,000 miles, allowing one additional trainset to be released for service per week.” The benefits of releasing an additional trainset into service “should not be underestimated”, it allows the operator “to provide more train services” and allows the maintainer to have “a better understanding of the performance of its wheelsets” and therefore make smarter decisions regarding day-to-day operations [5.9].

Commercial Exploitation by Railway Operators

Automated non-destructive testing techniques developed from the research [3.4, 3.6] have been commercially exploited by two major rail infrastructure manufacturers, Alstom and MRX technologies.

Since 2017, the tools arising from the research for calculating wheel condition parameters [3.1] have been integrated within the Alstom ‘Trainscanner’ and ‘HealthHub’ predictive maintenance systems to automatically calculate and interpret wheelset condition and support maintenance scheduling. The Wheelsets and Components Engineer at Alstom, stated that “using these tools, we have recently been able to operate a wheelset up to 500,000 miles (43% increase) without incident as part of trial, and we are currently working with the [UoH] Institute to realize the benefits of this trial across the entire fleet” [5.9].

The wheel surface crack measurement (SCM) technology (2016), developed in collaboration with MRX Technologies [3.3], enabled rail operators and maintainers to reliably detect and characterize the severity of wheel damage which is difficult to quantify through visual inspection [5.10]. Porterbrook, a railway rolling-stock leasing company, have taken the research on SCM and ETT [3.3, 3.6] and applied it to a fleet of diesel locomotives. The Head of Digital Services at Porterbrook, commented: “the operator has trialled this on one fleet, which moved them from a 600,000 miles wheel life to 780,000 miles wheel life (25% extension)” [5.10].

The models developed during the research [3.1, 3.2] are a key element of the wheelset management model, which was incorporated into the Vehicle Track Interaction Strategic Model (VTISM) in 2014. VTISM is a rail industry tool (developed by UoH in association with Serco) for modelling the cost of track and wheelset deterioration. It supports the optimization of maintenance and renewal regimes, thereby increasing wheelset life and reducing costs. This industry-recognized model is run and managed for the UK rail network by the RSSB and is available to all its members for use [5.7]. There are 28 organizations (and 42 users) registered to use the model, of which five are rail industry suppliers, nine are train operating companies, one is an infrastructure manager and the remainder are research organizations. This represents a significant proportion of the UK rail sector.

The research was carried out within a Knowledge Transfer Programme (KTP) and the findings have been exploited by the sponsoring company, Weir Valves (now part of Trillium Flow Technologies) to develop a new product, and thus increase their turnover. Lessons in the practical application of the new design approach have been shared with companies operating across the flow dynamics industry.

The impacts can be summarized under three headings:

A. Commercial benefits for Weir Valves

B. Improvements in safety-critical valve design

C. Better design practice across the critical valve industry

Commercial Benefits for Weir Valves

The research findings enabled Weir to increase their sales in a number of ways. The mathematical models [R1,4,5] applied to multiphase valve design, enabled the company to design and build valves that met the specifications of their customers more reliably. The demonstrable mathematical rigour behind the valve design, which resulted in an “astonishing improvement in size calculations” [E5] significantly increased credibility in the market and convinced customers that Weir were the partner of choice. The MD of Trillium said that their “detailed understanding of the performance of [their] valves” means “Customers now see us as knowledgeable in this area. We now use this as a sales tool” [E1].

Sales of the X-treme valve had increased by 640% by 2018, according to the KTP final report produced at the end of the project. The project was vital to the award of a £3m contract for an oil and gas industry customer in the North Sea [E5]. Sales volumes have continued to grow and the MD of Trillium stated, “The KTP was a great success [..] and has improved how competitive we are [..]. Our market share of severe service valves has increased significantly” [E1].

The new valve design method developed, also revealed that the existing design methods resulted in oversized valves for a given capacity. The UoH-developed design process increased the accuracy of the valve sizing by up to 250% [E5] which led to the creation of a smaller valve that gave the same performance envelope as a bigger valve. This gave Weir a cost advantage (because less raw materials are required) and meant they were able to reduce the price of the finished product to their customers. Confirming this, the MD of Trillium wrote that the KTP had allowed them to “be more competitive in smaller valve offerings” [E1]. Indeed, the company were able to reduce the size of all the valves, not just multiphase valves [E5]. Smaller valves provided customers with other advantages such as fewer operating issues and associated physical handling problems [E2,3].

Improvements in Safety-Critical Valve Design

The research findings resulted in a set of mathematical models [R5,6] that enabled Weir to improve the performance of their safety-critical valves, both in terms of their performance against specification and their longevity. The MD of Trillium stated that the research findings help the company to “specify valves more accurately, to select the appropriate valve and [..] choose the optimal solution [for] better operational performance” [E1]. Weir also used the models as the starting point for their valve designs. They then iteratively applied the correction factors the models indicated, which produced the optimum design more quickly.

The advantage of this approach, as opposed to the old, trial and error method based on the industry-set empirical standards, is that the performance of valves designed this way is more predictable and repeatable. This resulted in a superior finalized valve design [E1]. This approach enabled Weir to redesign and improve their X-treme valve for safety-critical applications.

The research on additive manufacturing processes [R2] enabled Weir to use this technique to produce valves to a high precision. Additive manufacturing led to a reduction in costs because it uses less material than traditional methods (it builds a structure from scratch, rather than removing metal from block) and it is less labour intensive. The X-treme valve is now manufactured using the new processes.

Better Design Practice Across the Critical Valve Industry

Weir have embedded the knowledge in their business and used it to train their engineers, which has resulted in improved understanding of the product, faster design and improved sales. UoH extensively interacted with Weir through the KTP and one-to-one meetings and explained how they combined the mathematical models with the empirical industry standards to create novel valve designs. Weir have shared this knowledge with many businesses in the multiphase critical valve industry, including VWS Westgarth (who make water treatment plants for oil and gas installations), SBM (a service provider for the oil and gas industry based in the Netherlands) and the following firms based in the global oil capital of Houston, Texas: Wood, Worley Parsons, Exxon Mobil, Williams and Bechtel. This activity increased understanding of multiphase sizing techniques at these companies, resulting in wider incorporation.

The MD of Weir confirmed that they regularly give presentations, which are “providing the industry with more detailed knowledge of valve performance” to “leading major oil and gas contractors globally” [E1]. This has led to better awareness of the new design approach in companies such as Exxon Mobil, Equinor (a global energy company) and Worley (a service provider to the chemical industry). Feedback from a participant at one of the CPD events in 2019 indicated how they planned to change their internal processes. The Technical Director from Koso Kent Introl (an industrial valve manufacturer, formerly at Weir) said, “attending this CPD is considered [as valuable training for those working] towards attaining registered professional engineer status” [E6].

Awareness of the research findings led to interest from other flow handling companies and resulted in four further knowledge transfer partnerships with SME businesses (Koso Kent Introl (valve manufacturer), Woodcock and Wilson (centrifugal fan manufacturer), Trust Electric Heating (who make electric radiators), plus one more at Weir [E7]. The total value of these contracts to the University of Huddersfield is £955,000. It is anticipated that the total value to the businesses at the end of the KTP will be £500,000 in increased net profits and after five years will be a total of £9.65 million (based on the companies’ own calculations) [E7]. The research methodology developed when working on the first two KTP projects with Weir has been used to optimize the performance of their existing products and to develop new ones. A UoH-hosted web-based portal was launched in February 2020 and received 14,000 hits by the end of the year [E4]. All the above resulted in Hull-based Shipham Valves, one of the longest-established industrial valve manufacturers in the world, negotiating development of a KTP project.

Additional cross references [a, b, etc.] refer to the relevant outcomes in Section 2.

The impact presented in this case study contributed to an improved understanding of the derailment risk posed by imbalanced wagons by the rail industry, and led to a consequent improvement in risk management. The key beneficiary groups were freight operating companies, Her Majesty’s Inspector of Railways and the Rail Safety and Standards Board.

The impact can be divided into four subheadings:

1. Enabling industry response to a critical issue

2. Reduction in derailment risk

3. Commercial benefits

4. Contribution to standards

Enabling Industry Response to a Critical Issue

In 2014 the Office of Rail and Road (ORR) took regulatory action and called for an industry-wide response [5.1] to address the issue of freight derailments, which reached an all-time high of 14 that year. A cross-industry group was created, which commissioned research [3.5, 3.6] described in this case study and then applied the findings.

Collectively, the research findings [3.5, 3.6] were critical in helping industry provide a satisfactory response, by informing and justifying stakeholder mitigations. Such mitigations included re-orientating imbalanced containers to minimise vehicle imbalance when loaded [5.3], or providing targets so loading operators of bulk products knew where to “aim” the load, such as a painted line down the middle of a flat wagon or ensuring the peak of loaded aggregate “does not exceed 250mm from the [wagon] midline” [5.9]. As a result of risk-mitigation processes introduced across the industry, the incidence of freight imbalances dropped dramatically, with “monthly longitudinal imbalances reducing from 70 to 3 events” (2018–20) [5.4]. As a result, in May 2020 ORR removed freight derailments from their top five concerns [5.8]. The ORR confirmed the significance of the changes: “Phil Shackleton’s work [..] provided [..] the incontrovertible evidence, a measurement system and thresholds to allow the freight industry to act on this matter”, and “This has had a great positive impact. It has led to a change [in] the way in which the industry addresses this concern and has facilitated a step-change in the industry’s attitude to derailment risk”, adding “It has been an exemplar of how academia can work hand in hand with industry stakeholders to solve a complex problem” HM Chief Inspector of Railways, ORR [5.6].

Reduction in Derailment Risk

Derailment risk from imbalanced loading was reduced by up to 50% [5.2, 5.3] as the industry applied the relationship between imbalance and derailment risk [a] identified by the research [3.5, 3.6]. Freight operating companies have been able to make informed changes to their operating policies and procedures and thus substantially reduce derailment risk from imbalance, as industry representatives testify: “For Freightliner, we believe this has allowed us to take action to reduce the risk of derailment by between 30-50%, and managing this risk using the outputs and tools of Phil Shackleton’s work is now in our DNA” Professional Head of Traction & Rolling Stock Engineering, Freightliner [5.2] (2020).

“The industry’s approach to freight loading has transformed as a direct result of the work that Phil’s team did to formally identify and for the first time quantify the relationship between derailment risk and combined lateral and longitudinal load imbalances for rail freight wagons, and enabled a derailment risk reduction of 49%, despite a traffic uplift of at least 25% since 2018” Chair, Cross Industry Freight Derailment Prevention Group [5.3].

The research utilised existing, in-situ sensor and data acquisition technology to quantify the risk factor from offset loads for any freight wagon, train or wagon contents [5.4] using UoH metrics [3.5, 3.6] to quantify acceptable levels [b]. The data generated by this approach has enabled freight operators to monitor the ongoing effects of the resulting risk-mitigation strategies, using regular reports from Network Rail that quantify the risk of derailment and how it has trended over time [5.4]. Although the risk cannot be completely eliminated, recorded instances of excessive imbalance have reduced by 95% since 2018, when records were first made available to the industry [5.3, 5.4]. The historic average cost of a derailment was estimated at over £800k and the justified annual safety spend for the industry was £1m per year. There is an expectation from the regulator that, following the mitigations enabled by the IRR research and undertaken by the industry, these costs will have fallen, but at this time a new calculation has not been made. A Senior Engineer at Network Rail indicated that:

“Without the work that Phil Shackleton at the University of Huddersfield did to confirm the link between longitudinal and transverse offset loads and derailment risk, it is highly likely that freight operators would still lack the information they needed to confirm the need for change” [5.4].

Commercial Benefits

The research also led to the prevention of a new derailment risk. It was planned to repurpose redundant coal wagons to carry denser aggregates. The research identified that the wagon type was sensitive to imbalanced loading, which would not normally be possible when fully loaded ‘to the top’ with coal. However, more dense aggregates, which would not fill the wagon volume, could potentially introduce significant imbalance [d]. The research indicated that shortening the wagons to reduce the load volume to match the new payload density [3.6] would avoid the need to scrap them. The modification minimised the imbalance and hence, the derailment risk. The shorter wagons also meant there could be more wagons in a train, bringing increased operational efficiency [5.3] (as freight trains are length limited in the UK). The Cross-Industry Freight Derailment Prevention Group (XIFDPG) commented on activity since 2018:

“Put simply, this has […] saved costs and extended asset life - by finding a use for approximately 2500 redundant coal wagons (the market for coal has collapsed). It costs up to £50k to repurpose each of these coal wagons and this avoids having to buy a new aggregates wagon at £120k. If the whole fleet ends up getting repurposed, this alone will have saved the industry nearly £175m. This process has started, with 500 already complete or underway to my knowledge” [5.3]. To date the industry has expended £25m on the 500 wagons, producing assets worth £60m at a net saving of £35m.

The research findings were exploited in a number of commercial projects for freight operators including GB Railfreight, Freightliner, VTG, Network Rail, DRS and DB Cargo, as a result of their membership of the XIFDPG [5.7]. The projects [3.5, 3.6] allowed the operators to better understand the imbalances from specific payloads and then develop strategies and operational rules to reduce imbalance-driven derailment risk [5.2, 5.3]. The letter from XIFDPG confirms: “[The] model has proven equally effective in both container and bulk wagon loading and has provided the owners of the UK’s freight wagons with the confidence to make financial decisions about their rolling stock…” [5.3]. Where imbalance could not be avoided, one operator “re-allocated a fleet of aggregate wagons… to a problematic flow based on their superior predicted tolerance to imbalanced loads, using Phil’s model” [5.3].

Contribution to Industry Standards and Best Practice

The imbalance limit [a] [3.5] was used to define new acceptance test conditions in the relevant national standard (GMRT2141 i4 **[5.5]**) owned by the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB); instead of measuring only the Tare (unloaded) and fully loaded behaviour of the vehicles, a number of representative use cases must now be considered. This ensures that new vehicle designs do not introduce greater risk to the network.

“Phil Shackleton’s quantification of the problem was vital to us being able to publish effective guidance for designing wagon suspension to handle the impact of offset loads and to minimise the likelihood of derailment” Director of Standards, RSSB (2020) [5.5].

The National Freight Safety Group produced a new Code of Practice (CoP), which is now used as a reference point for its 11 members [5.9] [3.6] and is freely available to download for wider use. A General Manager at Aggregate Industries wrote: “The guidelines in these sections were informed by the findings [..] and provide operators with practical rules which may be applied on a daily basis as part of ongoing, industry wide, management of derailment risk”. He continued, “This work has addressed risk areas which had not previously been clearly qualified and practices to mitigate them had not been identified” [5.10] (2020).

The CoP also led to a change in practice across the industry. The same General Manager said: “Further to the publication of the CoP a number of toolbox (local training) talks were produced by Aggregate Industries to support the communication of those key practices to relevant operators. These [were] made available within RSSB's SPARK [cross-industry system]”. The CoP and toolbox talks were shared with 90%+ of the construction materials sector and “widely communicated” to relevant staff. He concluded, “As a consequence of the CoP, and supporting research, day to day loading practices are better informed, and the derailment risks from imbalanced bulk wagons has been reduced” [5.10].