Based on patented technology, IEM's WISE Flaw™ optical wheel flaw detection system offers important innovations with respect to wheel flaw detection:

• Entirely non-contact evaluation. Unlike current state of the art means for detecting wheel flaws, WISE Flaw™ is entirely based on non-contact technologies that enable detection of flaws while a train remains in revenue service and without requiring cars to be sent to a special facility for inspection.

• Operates at range of speeds. WISE Flaw™ achieves the important goal of enabling wheel flaw detection on trains moving at mainline track speeds (50+ mph) as well as at lower speeds.  As such, WISE Flaw™ may be integrated with either of IEM's current WISE™ models, Humpyard Low Speed WISE™ or WISE SuperSite™.

• Able to detect external defects. Unlike current technologies that concentrate on detection of internal wheel flaws and cracks (which is in itself still an important task), WISE Flaw™ focuses primarily on detection and reporting of major external flaws that have an immediate impact on rail safety and fuel efficiency.

• Integration with Wayside Technology. WISE Flaw™ directly integrates with IEM's current WISE™ wayside systems. This integration has both practical and design benefits (no need to re-invent critical components such as wheel triggering, car tracking, car identification, data management, etc.) and long term wheel management benefits (data mining for trends, cross correlation with other inspection modes, scheduling effective repairs).

• Practical application of IEM Patent. The underlying technology for WISE Flaw™ is derived in its entirety from IEM's already granted US Patent 7,564,569 for Optical Wheel Evaluation.