The new "Inverted Pantograph SLS202" from Schunk Transit Systems has a special feature: the system does not sit on the roof of the vehicle, but the pantograph is lowered onto the vehicle from above. The idea and the structurally simple but ingenious belt drive won the Schunk Innovation Contest in 2022.
Tested in the innovation center
This pantograph recently underwent a stress test. It was run up and down every minute for three weeks without a break - in constantly changing temperatures ranging from a desert-like +65 °C to a polar-cold -30 °C. It's a good thing that Weiss Technik in Reiskirchen has a climate test chamber with a particularly high ceiling in its new innovation center.
Technician Tobias Zielke describes it like this: "Our pantograph has to be able to perform a cold wake-up, i.e. a cold start, even at -30°C without any problems. Shortly afterwards, up to 1,000 amperes of current flow through two 150 mm² cables, which are fed into the vehicle's battery via two narrow contact surfaces. We monitor this current flow via the resulting temperatures. They must not be outside a narrow tolerance range, no matter how much the contacts and system wear out during the three weeks of stressful temperature change testing."
"Example for OneFirm"
Test engineer David Blaufelder from Weiss Technik is not surprised that the large climate chamber fulfilled its task without any problems: "It would be terrible if you had to stand next to it for three weeks while a test like this was running," he says. "That's exactly what our test chambers are designed for. We monitor the test status online."
Head of Development Christian Haack adds: "We now also offer testing services externally. A test chamber with this ceiling height is not publicly available in Europe. For me, this is a great example of One Firm - together we are successful."
The inverted pantograph is already at a late stage of development. "It looks good, we now want to reach series production," concludes SBA Manager Timo Staubach.