01.07.15
An active Pantograph in action
Source: RTM Jun/Jul 15
Adam Hewitt reports on a demonstration of a new monitoring system to ensure reliable contact between pantographs and overhead lines.
The 2014 winner of the Innovation Award from the Railway Industry Association and FutureRailway was Brecknell Willis for its ‘dynamic pantograph’, with £300,000 of funding attached to develop the idea. Brecknell Willis, based in Chard, Somerset, specialises in electrification and traction for all types of transport systems, including tramways, metros and railways, and with colleagues at City University recently unveiled its progress to senior figures in the industry.
The dynamic pantograph project was kickstarted by a 2011 Collaborative Fund grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, though the concept goes back much further – a paper called ‘Developments towards an active pantograph’ was delivered at the Institution of Electrical Engineers by David Hartland, a senior project engineer at Brecknell Willis, back in 1998, for example.
But the current incarnation of the project has been in development for about four years, during which time City University engineering professors Tong Sun and Ken Grattan have been working with Lee Brun and Steve Cullingford of Brecknell Willis. Siemens and Morganite have also been involved in the work.
The follow-up grant from the RSSB and RIA has enabled further development of the idea and potential practical applications.
At a workshop on 30 April, academics from City University London’s Photonics and Instrumentation Research Centre hosted a workshop to demonstrate the design and implementation of its active instrumented pantograph.
Existing passive pantographs are part of mechanical suspension systems in which the contact force is predetermined and cannot monitor or adjust to changes in the environment within which they operate.
The project is aimed at delivering a real-time monitoring system ensuring a reliable contact between the pantograph and the overhead line, which could reduce service disruption in severe weather conditions, allow multiple pantograph operation, allow higher speed operation on existing infrastructure, and offer both train and infrastructure maintenance and reliability benefits.
The system, incorporated into the instrumented pantograph, is made up of an array of sensors written into a single length of fibre based on Fibre Bragg Grating technology, the developers say.
The pantograph provides a real-time measurement of both the direct contact force between the pantograph’s current collector and the overhead wire and its contact location when running under overhead power lines.
The industry-focused workshop, supported by the RSSB, featured a review of optical fibre sensor research activities at City by Professor Sun, who also gave a presentation on the design and implementation of the active pantograph with Lee Brun.
Professor Grattan – interviewed in RTM back in our August/September 2011 edition – explained more at the workshop about the university’s longstanding expertise in instrumentation research.
The workshop’s 20 attendees were “drawn from senior engineering ranks within the UK rail industry”.
Professor Sun said: “The pantograph workshop and demonstration was a great opportunity to showcase the world-class quality of City’s optical fibre sensor research and its application to new instrumentation for rail transport, which is critical to the success of the UK economy. This has been an excellent collaboration with Brecknell Willis and the world-class expertise in the field they offer, with the support of the RSSB.”
The team are now in talks about the future practical applications of the project. RTM hopes to have an update on those confidential talks in our August/September 2015 edition.