German railway equipment supplier Knorr-Bremse and Swiss asset intelligence firm Nexxiot are jointly launching a suite of smart products for improving connectivity throughout the rail industry.

Starting in 2024, the Knorr-Bremse node and hub and associated cloud services will be available for outfitting and retrofitting passenger and freight trains.

Smart analytics of operating data gathered from braking and other systems will aim to improve train availability, operational efficiency and punctuality. Key projects are already underway in the UK and USA.

Knorr-Bremse expects digital technology to generate steady growth, achieving rail division revenues in the lower double-digit million-euro range by as soon as 2025.

Knorr-Bremse is focused on driving forward the digitalisation of the rail sector. Together with Nexxiot, based in Zurich, it is about to bring a suite of smart products for connected passenger and freight trains to market. With these, Knorr-Bremse is creating the basis for high-growth digital business models in the areas of connectivity, cloud and software-as-a-service.

“The rail industry is asking to enhance cost efficiency, operational efficiency and reliability,” said Nicolas Lange, member of Knorr-Bremse’s executive board. “Digitalisation and data management technologies offer enormous opportunities in this respect. With the smart options we’re presenting with Nexxiot, we’re creating a new level of connectivity for our braking and other systems that will help our customers to improve the productivity, availability and punctuality of their rail services.”

Stefan Kalmund, CEO of Nexxiot, added: “Together, Knorr-Bremse and Nexxiot are shaping the future of the rail industry. Our partnership will help the industry to achieve the levels of efficiency and reliability that are already taken for granted in other transportation segments. As a key technology partner, Nexxiot is proud to be accompanying global market leader Knorr-Bremse on this pioneering journey.”

In 2022, Knorr-Bremse paid €60m to acquire a minority stake in Nexxiot. The companies have also concluded a cooperation agreement to progress digitalisation and connectivity in the rail sector with the aim of contributing to sustainable, reliable and efficient rail mobility.

“In less than 18 months, our focused collaboration with Nexxiot has seen the development of market-ready products for outfitting new train fleets and retrofitting existing fleets,” said Maximilian Eichhorn, vice president at Knorr-Bremse. “Among other things, we’ll be able to leverage the potential of real-time operating data to make precise statements about the condition, performance and maintenance requirements of our systems. This means more trains on tracks and fewer trains in workshops – a major benefit for our customers.”

The partners combined Knorr-Bremse’s systems expertise with Nexxiot’s competence in IoT. The workflow, which involves collecting operating data, transferring it to the cloud and turning it into useful knowledge, is based on three products:

• Knorr-Bremse Node: The adapter is connected to the control units of systems such as braking, entrance, climate control and coupling systems, where it gathers data on parameters such as noise, geolocation, temperature, energy consumption and shocks or vibrations. Each mode then sends the data by Bluetooth to the second piece of hardware, the Knorr-Bremse Hub.
• Knorr-Bremse Hub: The hub aggregates the data streams from the nodes attached to the various system controllers and sends them to the Nexxiot cloud via the cellular network and, in the future, via the rail vehicle’s own bus. Thus the hub acts as the gateway between data nodes and the cloud.
• Cloud services: Artificial intelligence and algorithms are used to analyse the data streams and turn them into specific insights. Customers can call up information on the location, condition, performance, maintenance requirements and potentially imminent malfunctions of vehicle systems and components via user-friendly dashboards so they can more efficiently plan the operation and management of their train fleets.

More than130,000 units of the Knorr-Bremse CubeControl brake control system are in operation around the world, as are more than 100,000 climate control systems produced by Knorr-Bremse brand Merak. Many of these systems can be upgraded with the new technology. When equipping new vehicles, this can be done directly via the systems’ control unit software.

Knorr-Bremse (www.knorr-bremse.com) will start rolling out the products in 2024, creating the basis for a range of digital business models. Alongside the node and hub hardware, users can benefit from scalable data services enabled by the Nexxiot (nexxiot.com) cloud ecosystem. These will be provided via subscription models (software-as-a-service) charging a monthly fee, or via pay-per-use models. Knorr-Bremse’s rail division aims for these to generate annual revenues in the lower double-digit million-euro range by 2025.

The technology is already being used in several projects involving predictive maintenance. Examples include the data interface between hardware and the Nexxiot cloud in use by rail freight operator VTG in the UK. Starting in 2024, 50 freight cars will be equipped with the technology. New York Air Brake, Knorr-Bremse’s rail freight subsidiary in the USA, has partnered with customers in the US freight transportation sector to install the nodes in brake control systems on freight trains, enabling them to communicate with pre-installed Nexxiot technology.