Companies that apply technology to safety are used to dealing with the concept of railway RAMS. And, in fact, the RAMS engineering department is a very important part of our team. However, do you actually know what is behind such an important concept, both in the development of the generic product and in the implementation phase of the specific application that each project demands?
What is railway RAMS?
As we always remind you, the railway industry is extremely demanding regarding long-term reliability in order to guarantee the safety of installations and, above all, of people. In order to achieve this objective, it is necessary to comply with strict Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Safety parameters for signalling, communications and electrification systems throughout the entire life cycle. Now you know what the acronym we are talking about in this article derives from. In short, RAMS (Reliability, Availability, Maintainability & Safety) analysis is a quantitative and qualitative indicator of the confidence in a system, subsystem or its constituent components to perform as designed or specified, to be available on time and to be safe. In addition, all processes involved in the RAMS requirements are covered by EN50126.
How is it carried out?
The RAMS analysis starts with the study of the reliability and maintainability data of the system elements. In order to draw up the risk matrix, different factors must be taken into account, such as the type of activity, the frequency of use, the materials used, the people involved, the changes made…
Furthermore, it is very important to note that all failures affect the reliability of a system. However, only some will have an adverse effect on safety within the scope of a specific application.
RAMS at Triple E
Triple E’s RAMS engineers have extensive experience in all of the functions described above. They also work closely with our clients’ safety departments. This ensures that our solutions are robust enough to protect human lives and client assets.
