PantoBlog

PANTOhealth<>Trako 2021

After 18 long months of online events, PANTOhealth is showing up in the TRAKOfair exhibition in Gdansk.It is interesting to meet people in person and talk about the process in the last 18 months and also the future of the rail industry.You are welcome to visit us in E36, the bovine of Berlin Brandenburg.

Precise position in predictive maintenance of infrastructure is just an option or a key point?

All infrastructure should be inspected and monitored regularly in order to prevent failures. Among many measured data from the infrastructure, the geolocation of the collected data should also be recorded. Standards like EN 50317 define the parameters and the required precision of each parameter that should be recorded. But most of these standards didn’t define…
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PANTOhealth <> Railway summit 2021

PANTOhralth is proud to be among sponsors of the International Railway Summit, an event that gathers key customers and carefully selected technical experts of railways industry together. The 10th edition (IRS10) of the summit will be held online on 23-26 February. The unique opportunity that this summit provide is matching buyers’ project requirements with experts’…
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Can you feel a Pantograph? No, but elephants can!

Pantographs and Elephants are both interested in “Infrasounds”​, 0.5-20 Hz. Elephants can communicate using very low-frequency sounds, with pitches below the range of human hearing. These low-frequency sounds, termed “infrasounds,” can travel several kilometres, and provide elephants with a “private” communication channel that plays an important role in elephants’ complex social life. Their frequencies are…
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When a solution makes a new problem! Thermal ice melting of the contact wire locks the tension wheels in the tunnels and causes high tension.

Most of the overhead catenary systems are suffering from icing in winter. De-icing technology can be divided into three categories, which are thermal melting ice, mechanical icebreaking, natural passive methods. Vibropantographs or secondary “ice cutter” pantographs are some examples of mechanical icebreaking. You can read more in this article. The main week point of mechanical ice…
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Pantograph & catenary interaction: wave reflection at the end spans of a mechanical section and pantographs contact quality.

The contact force between pantograph and catenary is the most important parameter that should be considered and monitored. Contact force fluctuation is the opposite of contact quality. The more standard deviation in contact force you have, the less contact quality you have. The reason for contact force variation is either non-uniform vertical elasticity of catenary…
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Transportation sector, the pioneer in predictive maintenance 4.0

While the penetration ratio of “predictive maintenance concept” is more than 80% in industries, the statistics released by General Electric shows that the transportation sector has already stepped in this way. In this sector, there are signs of faster progress, and they have already brought the first examples into practice. The same investigation compares the…
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Which one is more critical? tension loss in contact wire or messenger (catenary) cable

The electrification of a fleet involves either a third rail or an overhead catenary system typically. Achieving appropriate current collection in a high-speed train needs the contact wire geometry within defined limits. This aim is usually achieved by supporting the contact wire from a second wire known as the messenger wire (in the US & Canada) or catenary (in…
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“value-chain-wide” digitization of rolling-stock and railway infrastructures: prerequisite, prosperity and challenges

Railway transportation systems, including rolling stocks and infrastructures, are capital intensive. Accordingly, they are counted as long-term investments. Increasing the competition among manufacturers and operators has resulted in shifting toward advanced services, higher reliability, and reducing the cost of operation. Shrinking the maintenance cost is an appropriate option to minimize the total cost of the…
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Amazing nonlinear behaviour of droppers in the catenary system

Estimated time for reading: 8 min Overhead Catenary Systems (OCS) are the most common practice for supplying electricity to electric trains. Provision of continues connection between pantograph and contact wire with the added necessity for low electrical wear and mechanical wear of collector strip is amongst the main challenges for engineers and researchers alike regarding…
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