News CAF T&E
 

CAF T&E is taking part in the European Congress on Trams and Light Railways. This eagerly awaited event, held on 15 and 16 September, addressed the future challenges facing the sector and the role of technology in the development of sustainable urban commuting.

CAF T&E at the Zaragoza Congress

 
 

Zaragoza was chosen for the latest "European Light Rail Congress" organised by Mainspring in collaboration with Tranvías de Zaragoza and CAF among others.

The congress participants were able to visit CAF's "Digital Workshop" based in Zaragoza, the region’s capital, which is responsible for the maintenance of the Zaragoza Tram fleet. Visitors were able to learn first-hand about the digital transformation processes applied in the workshop and the CAF technologies used to optimise the maintenance and energy-efficiency strategy.

Energy Efficiency Digitalisation

Infrastructure

As such, during the visit, CAF Turnkey & Engineering, which comprehensively maintains the energy and electrification systems of the Zaragoza tramway, explained, together with the Zaragoza Maintenance Manager, Saúl Nafría, the digitisation initiatives with regard to the maintenance of these infrastructures with the implementation of their own CMMS for energy maintenance work.

CAF Turnkey & Engineering is also currently developing a technological innovation project in the Zaragoza Tramway, where it has installed information acquisition systems in its energy infrastructure. In this way, this information is being processed using big data analytics techniques with the aim of compiling information that is useful for CBM (Condition Based Maintenance) and thus improving the system’s energy efficiency.

Data-driven maintenance

Among the technologies implemented in the workshop is LeadMind, CAF's digital platform for smart operation and maintenance.

During the visit, the workshop team shared:

  • Real cases of real-time detections that prevented any service incidents.
  • The implementation of CAF’s advanced analytics for predictive maintenance purposes.
  • The value of CBM (Condition Based Maintenance) for safe and efficient planning even before the Urbos units reach the workshop.

One of the initiatives that received most attention in this respect was the implementation of the traceability system, through RFID technology (or radio frequency identification), with which they have full control over the traceability of selected assets such as the bogie.