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Company Overview
ZTR Control Systems is a privately held company based in London, Ontario Canada and with an office in Minneapolis, Minnesota USA. ZTR has been providing monitoring and control systems for the railway and industrial off-road equipment markets for over twenty years.
Company History
 | |
| Company type | Privately Held Company |
|---|---|
| Founded | London, Ontario, Canada (1987) |
| Founder | Tod Warner Aldo Liberatore Sam Hassan Derek Shipley Tom Nudds |
| Headquarters | London, Ontario,Canada |
Number of locations | 2 |
Area served | Worldwide |
| Products | Locomotive Control Systems Locomotive AESS Idle Reduction Systems Locomotive Fuel Gauges Remote Equipment Monitoring Systems Remote Asset Management Services |
Number of employees | 100 (2010) |
| Website | www.ztr.com |
Founding
TRAC Rail Inc. was established on October 28, 1987, when five former GM Diesel employees came up with an idea for control and monitoring systems to make locomotives run more cleanly and efficiently. [1] The founding partners of TRAC Rail Inc. were Tom Nudds, Tod Warner, Aldo Liberatore, Derek Shipley and Sam Hassan. TRAC stands for Trip Recording and Control, which was exactly what the company's systems were originally intended to do. Aldo Liberatore, a
While similar control systems are standard equipment on new diesel locomotives they weren’t available in the retrofit market at that time. With the average locomotive lasting about 15 years, many railroads choose to rebuild their units and get another 10-12 years out of them – saving anywhere from $100,000 to $900,000 U.S. over buying new. Until TRAC Rail designed its own products, all of which have patents pending, microprocessor systems weren’t available to the retrofit market.[2]
Early Sales and Expansion
The first test of a microprocessor based retrofit control system was done on a
Later in 1989, TRAC Rail began its first test on the Santa Fe Railway Unit #5032. A locomotive control system was successfully installed on the Santa Fe locomotive for five months before Santa Fe took it off. This defining moment resulted in the development of something that is still key to clients today: a tool to allow users to troubleshoot and diagnose the failures on-site. The entire future of the company was built on this DOS based Pascal diagnostic tool called IDEAS (Integrated Diagnostic and Expert Analysis System). It was an advanced concept because the syntax was simple English language statements, providing the means for anyone to diagnose and troubleshoot problems.
Despite TRAC Rail's innovative approach, the company had difficulty breaking into the retrofit market. The key was to find someone with a retrofit contract and sell them on the system. Ziegler Inc., the Caterpillar Inc. dealer's retrofit division Generation II, heard of the Santa Fe testing and approached TRAC Rail, with an interest in testing the microprocessor controls on some rebuilds it was doing for Burlington Northern Railroad. The first test was in the northern regions of Minnesota. The test proved fuel efficiencies were present with Caterpillar engines, versus the standard GM diesel engine. TRAC Rail impressed Ziegler with the results and Ziegler moved forward with TRAC Rail's control system.
Late into 1990, Ziegler suggested a joint partnership be created to take advantage of some synergies between the two companies. While TRAC Rail offered technical expertise based on a solid foundation of locomotive knowledge and experience, Ziegler brought an established service network with one of the best parts distribution businesses in the industry. Ziegler also offered to provide the marketing and sales support for the newly formed company. Hence, ZTR Control Systems Inc. was born with a mandate at the time to handle only locomotive related products.
During the installation of these control systems, ZTR introduced an automatic shutdown and restart system. The new system was called SmartStart®. This system monitored for conditions during shutdown that allowed the locomotive to restart to get them back into spec – essentially a smart thinking system. With increased scrutiny and regulation because of environmental concerns, and with the normal desire of any business to prevent waste and save money, mechanisms to stop unnecessary idling of locomotives were getting more and more attention. SmartStart, an automatic locomotive shutdown/restart system, was an ideal solution. During this time frame, more than 50 systems were installed and operating on Burlington Northern, CP Rail-Soo Line, Wisconsin Central, [[Gateway Western]], and Duluth, Missabe & Iron Range. With repeat orders, the list of new customers was growing. A major selling point of these systems was fuel savings. The microprocessor-based locomotive control systems had an open architecture that could go far beyond just an automatic shutdown and restart capability. ZTR expanded SmartStart to include event recording, fan cycling and control, duty-cycle logging, kilowatt-hour recording, and high-idle control. Additional features added over time include dynamic tag identification, cellular communications, maintenance flagging, health monitoring, and locomotive diagnostics.
Though most SmartStart systems have been retrofitted to Electro-Motive Division locomotives, they are applicable on all makes and models. Some of the earlier applications were made to Caterpillar-powered locomotives.
1992 brought more change for ZTR: Ziegler utilized ZTR’s expertise once again, but this time in the remote monitoring and control of standby engine generators. ZTR then got into the graphical software development end of things with this system, creating a graphical user interface to replace dials, meters, gauges, and buttons found at the site. Through the 1990's, ZTR continued to expand its product and service offering. Drawing on its strengths in control systems, ZTR developed a unique product that focused directly on landfill gas recovery operations.
In 1994, the monitoring and control of unmanned methane power generation sites was added to ZTR’s product and services. The systems are installed to monitor and control generating facilities located at landfill sites where methane gas served as the fuel for engine turning generators to generate electricity. The systems originally used a graphical user interface to display information being monitored at the site and alerted service personnel via pager, when any alarm conditions exited. With over a dozen installations across North America, these facilities provided a valuable source of green-friendly electricity to the communities in which they were located. ZTR Control Systems provided a means to safely automate these facilities and minimize human intervention.
In 1995, ZTR applied the first BOA locomotive anti-wheel slip system to a CP GP9. This control product was used to improve the pulling power of a locomotive by detecting and correcting any slippage the metal wheels may have on the metal rails.
The first large contract with the BOA system was for
International Expansion
| North America and Caribbean | South America | Oceania | Europe | Africa | Asia |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
In 1998, ZTR embarked on a completely new track, leveraging product offerings by providing services to the customer that would allow them to make use of the mountain of information that the monitoring & control systems were able to collect for them.
In 1998, ZTR expanded into the United States and opened a second office in Minneapolis, Minnesota. ZTR also entered the paralleling control system engineering market and the following year formed a partnership with Shallbetter to produce a new paralleling product called DGX. Then, to kick off the millennium, ZTR introduced the road SmartStart system in 2000.
By 2001, ZTR was organized into three business units – Railway, Industrial and a 24/7/365 Operations Center. This provided the company with greater focus and prepared it to handle the continued growth both in business and in people. Image of Call Center or Minneapolis Office
In 2002, the BNSF railroad attempted to lower their fuel consumption and reduce noise and air pollution by adding advanced technology to their locomotives. The technology involved an innovative combination of Kim Hotstart’s DDHS (Diesel-Driven Heating System), which keeps engines block temperature above 100 degrees F and the batteries charged, and ZTR's SmartStart. BNSF claimed it could save up to 12 million gallons of fuel per year just by shutting down idling locomotives when the temperature droped below 40 degrees F, and was looking to cut fuel consumption that year by 3% (about 38 million gallons). BNSF later planned to equip 40 locomotives with the Hotstart/ SmartStart combo, which Mark Stehly described as “one useful arrow in the quiver that we use to improve fuel efficiency and reduce emissions.
[4]
By 2003, ZTR was operating in two distinct markets - Railway and Industrial systems. In the Industrial equipment market, ZTR was providing unique application solutions for landfill operators, waste water treatment facilities and distributed power generation equipment. Up to this point, ZTR had been providing these solutions in partnership with Ziegler Inc. As a result of the success the company was experiencing with Ziegler, ZTR formed a business relationship with the Electric Power Division of Caterpillar Inc. Through this relationship, ZTR created the PointGuard brand of system monitoring and management solutions for North American CAT dealers and their customers.
By 2005, the next generation NEXSYS II and SmartStart II products were launched, providing railroads with proven, advanced control systems for locomotive performance upgrades and idle reduction.
By 2007, ZTR was expanding into other OEM equipment monitoring markets with their next generation remote monitoring, control and reporting solutions. They created several more brands in conjunction with their marketing partner PSI/PGL. The M10G Telematics Control Unit was launched. Their Industrial Division became Connected Assets Division, recognizing the power of connecting customers to their equipment.
Recent Changes
In 2009, the InReach brand of remote asset monitoring solutions was launched with the latest in end-to-end equipment monitoring capabilities. These technologies were leveraged for the railway industry with the release of the new SmartStart SAVER system, which gave railroads the ability to automatically report on fuel and emissions savings, as well as lost savings opportunities.
In 2010, Microsoft recognized ZTR Control Systems as a Certified Partner for their commitment to creating and delivering innovative customer solutions and services based on Microsoft technology. The M5G Telematics Control Unit was also lunched in 2010, targeting off-highway equipment fleets with a basic, low cost system.
Summary
ZTR has a history of growth based on innovative use of proven technologies, tailored solutions, and partnerships. With nearly 100 employees in both Canada and the USA, ZTR weathered the global recession of 2008-2009 extremely well and is in position to build on its history of growth.
Notes
- ^ Daniszewski, Hank (3 March, 2005), "High-Tech Firms Take Top Honours", The London Free Press, p. 1
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Maver, Kevin (July, 1992), "Making Tracks", London Business Monthly Magazine, p. 6
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Railway Age (July 2004), Two-Tech Fuel Cost Training, p. 1
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