South African Rail Track Detection Technology

The Institute for Maritime Technology (IMT), a division of Armscor Defence Institutes, provides research-based technological development and systemic support to the South African Navy. Armscor is the acquisition agency for the South African Department of Defence however it has expanded its service offering to include the research and development of technologies that are marketed locally and internationally.

The IMT has evolved to provide services outside of the maritime domain to other South African National Defence Force (SANDF) structures. State-owned defence-related research institutions in South African at times collaborate and are involved in the transfer of technology from military to civilian applications. An example of this is IMT’s Ultrasonic Broken Rail Detector (UBRD), initially developed to detect cracks on submarines by utilizing sensor technology.