Damping device to solve the pantograph-line capture problems, especially for the EU high-speed railways lines

Project Information

SPEED-EU

Grant agreement ID: 807337

DOI

10.3030/807337

Project closed

EC signature date 20 January 2018

Start date 1 February 2018

End date 31 July 2018

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Smart, Green And Integrated Transport

Total cost

€ 71 429,00

EU contribution

€ 50 000,00

Coordinated by

OFFICINA FRATELLI BERTOLOTTI SPA
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SPEED-EU (Damping device to solve the pantograph-line capture problems, especially for the EU high-speed railways lines)

Reporting period: 2018-02-01 to 2018-07-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

"The goal of the innovation project is to provide a solution to the problem of the wire-pantograph contact with a damping solution ""designed-in"", on the basis of a specific project, which would be added to the existing infrastructure.
The objectives of the overall innovation project are: 1) to perform a feasibility study focusing on the acquisition of knowledge about technical and market possibilities of the innovation, 2) to develop SPEED-EU, an innovative damping component to solve the pantograph-line capture problems, that will allow to increase the speed of trains to the new limits introduced by interoperability protocol of the European Commission, 3) to bring the innovation to the level of industrial readiness; 4) to introduce the innovation into the European market, and 4) to successfully commercialise the innovation by achieving at the least 10% share of our target market within 2022."

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

During the technical feasibility study planned for the SPEED-EU project, the device was designed, constructed and optimized. Furthermore, an intensive campaign of experimental measures was carried out, aimed at validating and updating the model.
The full list of activities required to produce the individual items of the prototype device version 5 has been analysed in order to highlight the investment requirements to start-up the production.
Moreover, the detailed production costs for a single device has been estimated.
The analysis of the target market went through: 1) the study of the world railway market, to identify market volume and future forecasts, trends, market accessibility per geographies; and 2) the direct verification of the product with respect to the needs of the railway infrastructure managers, through the involvement of Mr. Eric Fontanel, the project coach assigned by EC, to reach and interview high level experts who are either active or retired head of technical departments of railway infrastructure managers from different countries.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

SPEED-EU is not only targeted to high-speed lines and then it will contribute to improve the performance and safety of any type of rail line, including the rail freight infrastructure.
The SPEED-EU innovation, not only will allow infrastructure managers to achieve the interoperability requirements but it also bring important economic advantages since they will save 90% of costs required for substituting wires and support structures, without considering the economic impact related to the necessary interruption of rail traffic and the inconvenience that this imply for the citizens.