Together with Japan Railways (JR) Tokai, Omron's New Business Development Division HQ has developed a new safety system that prevents Shinkansen bullet train service vehicles from derailing if they accidentally pass over a defective track switching point.

Omron Safety System at work

The system consists of a combination of ground devices, detectors and train-mounted devices, and will be installed on all 130 switch points along the JR Tokaido Shinkansen bullet train line, which runs from Tokyo to Osaka, and on 320 service vehicles.

Shinkansen tracks are inspected and maintained every night by a large fleet of service vehicles and over 2000 servicemen. Conventionally, switch-points have been checked visually by service vehicle drivers themselves, but since October 1998, the Omron safety system serves as a backup system in case drivers accidentally overlook defects.

Should a driver pass over a defective switch-point without noticing, the ground device installed 120m before that point detects the defect, and transmits a warning signal to the antenna mounted on the service vehicle, causing the vehicle's emergency brake to be applied automatically. During the development of this system, Omron faced various technological challenges, including the problem of how to prevent signal interference, but successfully solved them all by making maximum use of its sophisticated proximity sensor and communication technologies.