Siemens strengthens its predictive maintenance offering with new acquisition

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A stock photo of train wheels. Credit: Chistoprudov Dmitriy/Shutterstock.
A stock photo of train wheels. Credit: Chistoprudov Dmitriy/Shutterstock.
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Siemens has announced the acquisition of Australian firm MRX Technologies Group (MRX), which specialises in the field of predictive maintenance.

The German manufacturer said that the predictive maintenance of rolling stock is becoming increasingly important and that being able to optimise maintenance – and make it more cost-efficient – is what customers demand.

It added that operators are increasingly shifting responsibility for maintenance to the rolling stock manufacturers and that orders for new rolling stock are often coupled with long-term maintenance contracts.

As a result of the new acquisition, Siemens’ Munich services centre will collect masses of data transmitted from rolling stock and trackside equipment using MRX tools, to be analysed in a central diagnostics system.

Early forecasts of system failures are then made and recommendations for scheduled maintenance are sent to technicians in the Siemens depots as well as to the operators.

The financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed but MRX will remain as a legally independent company within Siemens’ mobility division.

MRX was established in 1996 and is made up of RB Engineering, MRX Technologies, MRX Rail Services. and MRX Rail Service UK. The deal is expected to be finalised in July.

The CEO of Siemens’ rail service Johannes Emmelheinz said: “The digital monitoring of components and systems combined with the analysis of the resulting big data by our system experts enables these experts to spot sources of problems at an early stage.

“With the MRX Technologies Group, we are gaining a highly competent partner for collecting a full spectrum of measurement data related to rail systems – as the basis of our central diagnostics system.”

MRX Technologies Group managing director Jim Blair added: “Together, we will lead the rail industry into the digital future.”


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