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On Wednesday, December 1st 2010, Innowattech has installed a rail monitoring station with cooperation of the Israeli National Railways company. The monitoring station is located on a commercial rail near the Haifa station. The station includes several systems that together enable Innowattech's team provide high accuracy data to the rail operators' everyday needs. The unique full rail monitoring system was developed based on Innowattech's technology which enables the conversion of usually wasted mechanical energy into useful electrical energy. Most of the world's tracks use plastic based pads assembled between the sleeper and the tracks. These pads are designed to reduce the impact of fluctuations during the train's travel and at the same time reduce the environmental noise. Removing the plastic based pads: Innowattech has developed a similar pad in geometry and size to the original pad. Innowattech's pads are embedded with PZT materials, so once the train passes; an electric pulse is created which allows creation of electrical energy. Based on Innowattech's existing knowledge it is possible to analyze and process the received signals. Inserting Innowattec's pads: Currently, Innowattech's system enables data on dynamic & static weight of the train and its components (wheels, axles, locomotive and wagons), speed, count of the various railway wheels and components. Innowattech's development team is now concentrated on expanding the information provided and is intending to present information related to measurements and components' health such as the wheel's diameter & profile, in the upcoming quarter. The processed information, displayed in tables, is transferred as a file to the relevant office in the Railway Company. This basic information, necessary to train operators wherever they are, allows companies to reduce maintenance effectively.  The simplicity of the monitoring station's construction and its attractive price is a breakthrough in this market and allows many railway companies to place monitoring stations along the tracks, reducing the need for transferring measuring instruments along the tracks, as is the case today in many parts of the world. Innowattech is already in negotiations with several costumers from the railway field regarding the rail monitoring system and intends to start commercial selling very soon.
The project's purpose was to examine the new development based on Innowattech's technology- Innowattech's Weighing In Motion device. The solution is related to the smart road field.
Innowattech's Weighing In Motion device, enables vehicles to be weighed while in motion, meaning that overloaded trucks can be detected and prosecuted quickly and efficiently.
The new weighing system, a self-powered system which is embedded in the road, completed its final round of testing on Road 75, near Haifa.
The system, which has potential for use in law enforcement, infrastructure maintenance monitoring and road and bridge design and planning, is a further development of the partnership’s custom piezoelectric generators, which can be used to produce electricity from vehicle motion on the road.
This is the only system in the world that is embedded 5 cm beneath the asphalt and allows accurate weighing at any speed and simultaneously enables the supply of electric energy needed to operate the monitoring system and communicate it to the relevant body.
The system provides data on the weight as well as the speed of the vehicle.
On October 6th, 2010, Innowattech has performed a project with the National Railway Company. The project's purpose was to examine the new development based on Innowattech's technology- Innowattech's rail pad – IPEG PAD. The solution is related to the smart rail field.
During the project, 32 existing pads were replaced with Innowattech's pads. The IPEG PAD solution, in its basic form, is a generator designed to generate electricity for local solutions. The implementation of such solution is very fast and simple. Our pads are manufactured with the same external geometry of the original pads. The pads are embedded with piezoelectric elements.
As our pads contain piezoelectric disks, which can transform mechanical stresses into electrical output (voltage), we can determine the number of wheels, weight of each wheel, the wheel's capitation and wheel perimeter position. In addition the speed of the train and the wheel diameter (as we use pads at a known distance) can be concluded. The energy is self supplied by the system.
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The technology developed by Haifa-based Innowattech Ltd. was recently tested in a complete-system pilot project along a ten-meter stretch of Road 4 north of Hadera, Israel.
This is the first practical test of the innovative green energy technology developed by Innowattech, in association with Technion I.I.T (Israel Institute of Technology). The pilot is being conducted in cooperation with the Israel National Roads Company.
The technology is based on piezoelectric materials that enable the conversion of mechanical energy exerted by the weight of passing vehicles into electrical energy.
The first of its kind project demonstrated how Israeli technology can generate electricity from generators installed beneath a road's asphalt layer, presenting a pioneering invention for "parasitic energy harvesting." The technology does not increase the vehicles' fuel intake or affect the road infrastructure, harvesting the energy, which would have otherwise been wasted on road deformation, rendering this energy as "parasitic."
The system developed by Innowattech includes IPEGs™ (Innowattech Piezoelectric Generators), a harvesting module and a battery charging mechanism. During the pilot, the IPEGs™ were placed at a depth of five centimeters beneath the road's upper asphalt layer on a stretch of ten meters, capable of producing some 2,000 watt-hours (Wh) of power per hour on average on that stretch. The harvested power is relayed via a harvesting module to a battery charging mechanism beside the road.
Expanding the project to a length of one kilometer along a single lane would be capable of producing an average of 200 KWh per hour, sufficient electricity to provide for the average consumption in 200-300 households, provided approximately 600 heavy trucks or buses travel through the interval per hour on average.
The technology enables the supply of electricity to various road-side applications, such as traffic lights, billboards, police speed cameras, communication systems, road signs, etc., as well as transfer of the harvested electricity into the electric grid.
Weather conditions do not affect the electricity production of this technology, nor does it require special allocation of land. It can also be used for road data collection (Smart Road) and may provide electricity for areas remote from main electricity lines. In addition, the technology allows electricity to be harvested near the end consumer, rendering conduction infrastructure unnecessary.
Innowattech has also developed the technology for harvesting energy from movement of trains, airplanes and pedestrians, which are planned to be tested within months to come.
The team of scientists involved in the development of the IPEG™ system included the co-founders of Innowattech, Prof. Haim Abramovich, CEO and faculty member at the Technion I.I.T., Dr. Eugeny Harash, Chief Scientist and Prof. Charles Milgrom of the Hadassah University Hospital. The development team also includes Dr. Eugeny Tsikhotsky, Chief Technology Officer, Dr. Michael Gavshin, Senior Research Scientist, Dr. Lucy Edery-Azulay, Senior Technologist and Project Manager, and Sergey Yusimov, Senior Researcher and Production Controller.
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Innowattech has implemented several small projects on a highway, Road 40, near Ben Gurion International Airport. The projects have confirmed the results of the previous pilot projects conducted earlier at the Technion I.I.T.
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