Chennai :
Ever wondered why railway coaches should have just the vertical footboard that is risky for passengers? This could soon change if the idea of a group of IIT Madras students, who have designed a semi-automatic one to be fitted to the coaches, becomes a reality.
Designed at one of India’s premium technology institute’s tech festival Shaastra, the idea has already attracted the attention of top Railway officials. Impressed by this project idea along with two other ones that won the ‘Indian Railways Design Challenge’, Railway officials have decided to try out these modifications in upcoming coaches. The contestants were asked to design a suitable mechanism or device that could be fitted to the bogie or moved about on the platform without major alterations to the coaches.
Taking up this task, team ‘Innovators’ comprising mechanical and civil engineering students from IIT, had created a foldable semi-automatic footboard. Explaining its working principle, Borde, a team member said, “On arrival at the station, the guard should press a centrally-connected switch so that the steps, with multiple pin joints and controlled by single pneumatic cylinder and micro-controllers, roll out. When the switch is pressed again, these would fold back.” Borde’s team had designed a standard four-bar mechanism, which will be attached to the bogie with the fixed pivots attached close to the door. This mechanism consists of a ladder, a stepped ramp and a pneumatic telescopic bar.
A student event-organiser, Surya said, “One of the team members, whose father lost a limb while getting into a train, came up with this innovative automatic footboard design for Southern Railway coaches. This could end the woes of the elderly and differently abled persons.”
Speaking to Express, Narendra Borde, one of the team members said, “Every year, hundreds of passengers get either maimed or even killed while entering or exiting trains through the steep footboard. This is because of the large gap between the platform and the coach.”
While Borde’s team’s project was selected as one of the top three projects by Southern Railway officials who were the judges, another team from IIT-M secured the first place.
Raj Dandekar, a student from the team said, “After taking the maximum and minimum gap into consideration (229-305 mm) across India, with no major modifications in the coach design, our mechanism can help 22-24 people comfortably entrain and detrain within 180 to 250 seconds.”
The students claimed that the total cost of this device would be around Rs 8,300.
R Kuppan, Chief Mechanical Engineer, Southern Railways, who attended the event said, “We are generally skeptical when it comes to student projects, but today their projects were outstanding. The winners will be given a chance to work on their ideas with Railway engineers to develop them and we will try it on our railway coaches.”
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Ram M Sundaram / January 25th, 2016