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Systems integrator relies on nVent-Advantech global alliance robust solutions to meet Chinese railway monitoring system needs

Location: China 

SITUATION

To improve train safety and monitoring accuracy, a railway company in China planned to install train-mounted pantograph monitoring systems. The pantograph is the apparatus mounted on the roof of trains that collects power from overhead cables and transfers power to the trains. The installation space the trains used for the monitoring system was quite small and heat dissipation would be an issue.

In addition, the new system needed multiple cameras and sensing devices around the pantograph on top of the train to dynamically evaluate the health of the equipment by acquiring images, video, temperature and voltage data. Since the system needed to collect such large amounts of data and process it in real time, the specifications of the system needed to be much higher than general system requirements in terms of performance, I/O flexibility, storage capacity, reliability and longevity.

 

SOLUTION

The global alliance between Advantech and nVent made it easy and convenient for the system integrator to seamlessly get the advantage of both companies’ industry-leading capabilities and state-of-the-art solutions.

Advantech is a global leader in the Internet of Things (IoT) intelligent systems and embedded platforms. To embrace the trends of IoT, big data, and artificial intelligence, Advantech promotes IoT hardware and software solutions with the industrial IoT platform WISE-PaaS core to assist business partners and clients in connecting their industrial chains. Advantech also works with business partners to co-create business ecosystems that accelerate the goal of industrial intelligence.

Meanwhile, across its nVent HOFFMAN, nVent RAYCHEM and nVent SCHROFF brands, nVent offers the most complete and innovative electronic and electrical packaging as well as thermal management solutions for a variety of applications to meet equipment protection needs. From enclosures, cabinets, standard fan assemblies to air conditioners, heat exchangers, liquid cooling, leak detection, and more, customers can choose from more than 2,000 UL®- and IEC-certified products for reliable operation and longer life of protected components.


For this Chinese railway project, the system integrator chose Advantech’s modular 3U standard CompactPCI products – including a MIC-3023 cPCI System from nVent SCHROFF, MIC-3332 processor blade, MIC-3954 storage carrier board, MIC-3955 serial communication board, MIC-3956 power module, MIC-3958C Ethernet board and MIC-3958D Ethernet switchboard.

As part of the state-of-the-art solution, the Advantech MIC-3023 is in an nVent SCHROFF 3U cPCI system. It is a standard 19-inch rackmount subrack with a cPCI backplane that supports up to 21 slots. The system is provided completely wired along with the power supply unit (PSU) and cooling. It is suitable for multi-system compact PCI applications, and features a robust design that can effectively dissipate heat as well as provide outstanding RFI shielding and protection from high shock and vibration. For example, the backplane is able to accommodate three computing units and two power modules to meet the needs of the system for high-speed flexible computing involving large amounts of data.

The solution enables the train-mounted pantograph monitoring system to receive data from front-end cameras and sensing devices that record, transmit, store and analyze all operation values from the pantograph. If any data exceeds standard values, the system displays warnings to the driver machine interface (DMI) in the driver cab, and simultaneously sends alarm notifications to operators at the central control room.

 

RESULTS

The train-mounted pantograph monitoring system solution offers excellent performance, optimized heat dissipation, flexible configuration, easy expansion and easy maintenance. More specifically:

  • Dimensions conform to the height and width of the train rack and offer excellent heat dissipation properties;
  • Backplane offers more than 20 empty slots to configure the multiple computing units needed to provide the required computing performance;
  • Multiple I/O interfaces to meet all the data acquisition and transmission needs;
  • Excellent expansion and compatibility features to meet future needs.

The robust solution has now been successfully developed and implemented in many cities in southern China, and has become a standard solution for providing predictive maintenance, stable power supply and driving safety on trains.