How Rivelin Rail is Shaping Rail Safety Worldwide

Rivelin Rail was co-founded in 2021 by Dr. Ben White and Dr. Michael Watson, who met while completing their PhDs at the University of Sheffield - a world-leading centre for tribology. Supported by the Rail Safety & Standards Board and Rolls-Royce, the pair recognised a major industry challenge: field research on railway friction was severely limited by existing technology.

Each year, the UK spends over £60 million on railway friction management, covering railhead cleaning, friction-enhancing treatments, and lubrication systems. Despite this significant investment, rail friction is rarely measured directly. Instead, the industry has historically relied on visual inspections, making it difficult to gauge the true extent of low-grip conditions or assess how well management strategies are actually working.

To solve this, Ben and Michael drew on their combined 20 years of tribology experience to design a ground-breaking portable tribometer (a device used to measure friction).

Because directly measuring the friction between a moving train wheel and a track is extremely difficult, a tribometer works by recreating that contact on a smaller scale. The precision of these readings depends on how closely the device mimics real-world conditions, how precisely it can be controlled, and how accurately it records force.

Validated against full-scale testing facilities, Rivelin Rail’s PRT300 device delivers highly accurate, data-driven friction measurements in a lightweight, field-ready package. This technology allows rail operators to move away from visual guesswork and make smarter, more cost-effective decisions about track maintenance and safety.

Today, Rivelin Rail’s friction-measuring tech is deployed in 11+ countries. Most components are locally manufactured and assembled in Sheffield, and the business is directly creating industry placements for University of Sheffield students.

Rivelin Rail is now gaining regional backing, being accepted onto the AMRC FerretWorks: Startup programme which is supporting early-stage entrepreneurs, by bringing the centre's world-class resources to those with bold ideas and the ambition to scale.

Dr Ben White was the winner of the Emerge Awards Showcase 'Gone to Market' Category in 2025, receiving a prize fund of £5000 towards the business and is a brilliant representative of the entrepreneurial talent in the community.

The team took a visit to his workshop in Kelham Island to learn about how Rivelin Rail's friction-measuring technology is shaping rail safety worldwide.

Through the Emerge support, Ben White gained the mentorship, pitch training, and grant funding needed to take his portable rail tribometer from prototype to market.

In 2023, Emerge: Be enterprising was launched to help students and graduates to build skills, develop ideas and launch ventures.

Embedded within the Regional, Partnerships and Innovation Strategy, Emerge takes an innovative, start-up approach to delivery, and focuses on in-person connection to drive an enterprising culture across all areas of the University community.

Participants learn by action, and several new initiatives have attracted talent, such as The Apprentice Challenge (turning £10 into £100 in 10 days), the immersive Idea Bootcamp, and the cohort-driven Business and Graduate Founder Pathways.

Based out of the Start-up Studio in the Ella Armitage Building, the entrepreneurial community have access to masterclasses, socials, 1:1 support meetings and a network of successful founders to help them to persevere, pivot, or pause their business ventures.

The Business Awards Showcase, supported by Santander Universities, is one of the highlights of the academic year and helps to financially support the most promising ideas.

The University-wide competition has discovered talented founders who have continued to scale and gain further investment in sectors which range from health care, environmental sustainability, food and hospitality, transportation and fashion.