Development of High-speed Test Facility for Pantograph/OCL Systems

Abstract

The Railway Technical Research Institute (RTRI) has developed a new pantograph test facility, the “High-Speed Test Facility for Pantograph/OCL Systems,” to develop pantographs for high-speed trains, wear resistant contact strips, and so on. This test facility mainly consists of four parts: a rotational disk with attached contact wire which can rotate at high speed up to 500 km/h, exciters which reproduce lateral arrangement and vertical movement of overhead contact lines (OCL), an energizing device which applies large current to a pantograph up to 1000 A, and environmental control devices which can control temperature from -20 to +40°C and humidity from 10% to 90% in test chamber. This paper shows the function, performance, and usage example of this test facility.