Nexxiot has released a multipurpose Vector sensor to monitor brakes, hatches, and doors on railcars to improve cargo handling and freight quality management in transit. The sensor is part of a growing range of Asset Intelligence products from the firm. These have been adopted by a number of transportation companies to derisk cargo movement, safety and quality.

Multiple damaging incidents over recent months have accelerated the need for greater control and monitoring of cargo in transit. This has increased pressure on rail companies to provide safe, high-quality cargo delivery services to meet growing demand. Increases in urbanisation, as well as increasing resource insecurity, are background trends that are piling pressure on supply chains and transport.

The Vector sensor is designed to provide optionality for clients to address multiple use cases with one versatile architecture. With a service life of more than 15 years, the device measures the status in real time to provide data on hand brakes,access hatches, and train doors. It connects wirelessly to the Nexxiot Globehopper gateway using Bluetooth LE (BLE), and from here, the data is sent to the Nexxiot Connect Intelligent Cloud for processing and analysis. Clients can access data and use it for decision-making and responses.

According to Nexxiot, the only way to monitor railcar brake status, hatch opening or closing events, and door usage until now has been to conduct physical inspections and manual reporting. With automated data collection, essential safety-related checks, and component condition monitoring, possible future points of failure are identified as they occur.

“Both rail operators and cargo owners benefit from this innovation. With increased attention on safety, compliance, and resource security, Vector sensor offers multiple stakeholders the opportunity to monitor processes and demonstrate to their clients that they take maximum care when it comes to safety and cargo quality,” said Paul Wielsch, Nexxiot CTO.

Headquartered in Zurich, Nexxiot operates throughout Europe and the US with an international team of employees from 30+ countries. Nexxiot is currently digitalising fleets of shipping containers and railcars with zero-maintenance IoT gateways.