Background: A major manufacturer of railroad equipment needed to redesign a Track Switch Machine Controller which, originally designed at the turn of the century and although extremely reliable, was prohibitively expensive to produce.

Project: The task for Product Resources was to design a controller that would equal or surpass the reliability of the original design but would be built using modern components and technology. The final assembly was to be a form, fit, and function replacement for the original. Because of the stringent safety regulations and the critical nature of the application, the operating specification included extremely high levels of immunity to false signals and completely fail-safe operation. The operating ambient temperature range of -40 to +160 deg. F precludes the use of most semiconductor components. Product Resources' analysis of the original design revealed a technological sophistication that was so well suited to the application that the most critical components were simply redesigned to allow for more efficient production and the elimination of obsolete materials that had become very difficult to obtain. The rest of the controller, which consisted of a very labor intensive assembly of electrical wiring and contacts, was replaced with a printed circuit board and modern relays. Product Resources is able to manufacture the new controller assembly and ship it for less than 50% of the original cost.

Technologies: electromagnetic relay design, electromagnetic logic, relay logic, electric motor control and dynamic braking, DC arc suppression, CNC machining, sheetmetal work, aluminum sand casting, plastics machining, severe operating environments

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