Customer Stories: Alstom

Testing Drive Systems of Trains on a Highly Efficient Test Bench Delivers Real Time Results and Saves Time and Manpower

The multinational company Alstom SA operates in rail transport markets worldwide. As leader in the fields of passenger transportation systems, signalling, and services, the company is well known for products such as the AGV, TGV, Eurostar and Pendolino high-speed trains, as well as suburban or regional trains, metros and trams.

In Charleroi, Belgium, Alstom has two centres of Excellence for R&D and project management with 500 engineers and 100 researchers, one of them testing traction systems and auxiliary converters.

With the help of HBK engineers, Alstom Charleroi has developed a new data acquisition concept for testing traction systems and auxiliary converters. For the first time in the history of the Charleroi site they are using an HBK eDrive solution.

The HBK eDrive solution combines the advantages of precise, cycle-accurate test and measurement equipment with those of convenient test-bench development. This concept facilitates easy integration of sensors into the measurement system and controlling tests based on acquired data. Thanks to the formula database, the test bench engineers can quickly and easily create individual calculations – for customizable measuring and testing tasks.

With the new HBK eDrive solution the Alstom engineers can save up to 50 % of their time to conduct a complete validation test.

While the automotive industry still struggles with the transition to electrification, electric drives have been the standard in rail vehicles for over 120 years. Moreover, the requirements for motor performance and efficiency are continually rising – especially in times when climate targets have to be achieved. Hence, rolling stock makers are continuously testing their traction system and auxiliary converters to be most efficient. At the same time, there is a growing need for new test-bench concepts to test these new motors with the required accuracy – in shorter time. The challenge is to obtain reliable results while precisely controlling test processes.

Alstom, one of the top 3 world′s largest producers of rolling stock, also applies these requirements to its own test equipment.

Problem

Alstom Charleroi tests traction systems and auxiliary converters to simulate the train operating under real conditions. This requires precise test bench equipment that provides reliable data, allows for fast integration and is easy to work with. Before using HBK’s eDrive solution this type of test was done using one oscilloscope (up to 8 channels), one high speed recorder (up to 16 channels), one spectrum analyser and a lot of off-line post processing, which was quite time consuming.

Solution

Alstom now uses HBK’s eDrive solution (Genesis HighSpeed data acquisition system along with the Perception software), which quickly and reliably processes large amounts of data. Using a freely programmable interface, Perception exchanges measured data with LabView software, which controls the individual test-bench components and the automated test processes.

Result

Thanks to the modular concept of the HBK eDrive solution, a wide range of different sensors can be integrated into the measurement system simply by plug-and-play. The HBK eDrive solution reliably acquires measurement data, calculates results in real time, and makes them available for test-bench control. User-defined calculation formulas can be created without any programming knowledge and can be applied to measured values in real time; and to saved data in post process. This allows Alstom to do a complete test in one third of the time and save personnel costs.

“HBM’s eDrive Solution Is a Real Game Changer”

The Charleroi site of Alstom is one of the main places for testing converters for traction drive systems and for auxiliary systems for the entire Alstom train fleet. “At this site we validate the standard drive systems for Alstom products. If we get a new order with different requirement for the drive systems we are testing the new requirements here on our site”, explains Jean-Francois Gregoire, validation senior expert at Alstom. “Before we started with the HBK eDrive solution on our site, we were basically using one oscilloscope (up to 8 channels), one high speed recorder (up to 16 channels) and one spectrum analyser - and a lot of off-line post processing and calculating, which was not only time consuming, but resulted also in high labour cost. The HBK eDrive solution is exceptionally easy to work with and all processes run in parallel and in real time. This makes the development processes of our test bench software much easier and less complex.

To me, the HBK eDrive solution is a real game changer for three reasons:

1. We are saving about two-thirds of testing time. This makes a huge difference.
2. We can always do post computation offline without returning to the test.
3. We have a greater depth of detail for validation, since we capture every signal that we need at the same time.

What comes on top is: Personnel costs are considerably lower with HBK’s eDrive solution in comparison to the previous system."

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