SIGNAL & TELECOMMUNICATION DEPARTMENT

S&T Department in Rail Wheel Factory caters to the telecommunication needs of the organization. S&T department in RWF was setup during the inception of the plant in the year 1984 and in the first phase underground telecom cables were laid from S&T department in Administration building to factory area, Administration building, East & West Colonies.

ORGANISATION CHART OF S&T and E-LAB

CEE

SEE / HQ

AEE / HQ. / L / S&T SSE / E-Lab. SSE / S&T Ch. OS OS / S&T

Initially the telephone communication of RWF was met by a 400 Line MAX Exchange for railway phones and BSNL connections were from Malleswaram Exchange. A 100 line EPABX of TATA make was installed in the year for providing BSNL connectivity to the subscribers of RWF. In the year 1996 the obsolete Strowger Exchange was replaced with an Electronic Exchange of LDBX Mark-II ITI make of 384 lines capacity and further expanded to 624 lines. 1

After the commissioning of ITI Exchange BSNL facility was extended on the existing intercom phones through software control in the exchange and the TATA EPABX was de-commissioned. 10 Channel UHF (Ultra High Frequency) System was installed for connecting Rail Wheel Factory to the Indian Railways communication network through Bangalore Division. PRS (Passenger Reservation System) was introduced in Yelahanka with data connectivity through UHF equipment and S&T underground telecom cables. In 2008 RWF changed over from Electronic Exchange to the latest state of the art ISDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) Exchange of Coral Make installed & commissioned by M/s HCL Communication Systems, Bangalore with a capacity of 1024 ports with PRI (Primary Rate Interface) cards for BSNL incoming and outgoing, 1 PRI for Bangalore City access and 1 PRI for NDLS connectivity and around 600 internal railway phones. KTS (Key Telephone System) an EPABX Exchange providing intercom facility to officers of RWF with a capacity of 96 ports was commissioned in the year 2002 and in the year 2007 upgraded with the latest technology exchange of Nitsuko make installed & commissioned by M/s Enkay Communications, Bangalore. S&T department in keeping with the advances of Information Technology extended internet facility to railway subscribers in East & West Colonies on underground telecom cables using the broadband principle of operation, connecting 84 subscribers in East Colony and 34 subscribers in West Colony and a few connections in the Factory Area. Stores department floats high vale tenders using the advanced technology by E-tendering in RWF website for speedy processing of tender cases. FOIS (Freight Operating Information System) extended from Railnet Optic Fiber Cable was introduced for extending this facility. Conference Systems are provided in three locations in administration building and in the factory area for weekly meetings and during VIP visits to RWF. S&T department is also maintaining communication in Wheel Shop. Walkie Talkie system for crane

S&T also provides Public Address System for official functions in Factory premises, Stadium & Institutes in East & West Colonies.

ELECTRONIC LABORATORY
Since almost all the machineries are imported and having highly sophisticated controlling system. Wheels and Axles are best on very high proven technology which revolves around sophisticated electronics system and software automation. With the involvement of this type of technology the need of Electronics Laboratory has arised and initial setup with starting infrastructure was carried out in the year of 1984. The main thrust at that time of prevailing circumstances was of servicing of Electronic systems / Sub-systems used in plant. Slowly with the expertise gained and addition of further requirement of day to day needs the diversification of Laboratory has taken place and it has ventured for the other activities such as developmental works, Indigenisation Calibration etc. Apart from this the expertise which was limited to the RWF, with the management decision to extend demanding other Rlys / PUs. This has further added feather to its cap by providing services to other Rlys / PUs. In which it has shown very appreciable quality of job & in lieu of this appreciable amount of revenue also being earned. As being ISO-certified , In this line Electronics Laboratory has setup its new section called as standard cell (Calibration Laboratory) where almost all the electronics Monitoring & Measuring Equipments used for quality checks are being calibrated, which are directly traceable to National /International standards. Laser Beam Detection: In a rotary hearth furnace, the charge and discharge positions are fixed and objects which are charged shall be discharged after it passes through all the zones. It is very essential to see that the hearth does not index any further if a wheel or billet (or any other charged object) is present on the hearth at discharge station for two reasons- (1) Possible damage to the refractory wall between charge and discharge door (2) Possibility of Wheel/Billet going round all the zones again if not discharged thereby changing the metallurgical properties of the material. Prevention of such an occurrence is more easily thought than done, due to high temperatures prevalent in the furnace. This problem is being solved by directing the laser beam on the object with a sensor. The sensor shall sense no signal when the beam is interrupted by an object. The output of the sensor is then brought into hearth index control loop.