System for remote optical monitoring of the cross section of the conductor of railroad contact grids

Based on the method of optical contour illumination, a system has been developed and created for automatically measuring the wear and detecting the defects of the conductor of railroad contact grids. The system determines the residual height of the contact conductor to within 0.1mm and the cross-sectional area of the conductor with an rms error of 1.5mm2 at velocities of up to 60km/h, and this is sufficient to confidently make a decision whether to replace the worn sections of the contact grids. The system can also be used to measure the wear of the conductors of the contact grid of city transport and for process monitoring of the geometrical parameters when producing cable and tubular products.