In the realization of a new mountain and valley railway for the Eagle's Lair in Hinterzarten wiegand of Brakes-Technology from Ringspann. It made the BCS 600 brake control and monitoring system the linchpin of the safety concept of its rail-guided wagon train system. The special challenge: Only personal-safe braking systems that comply with the EU cable car directive may be used in cable cars and chair lifts.

Ringspann Adlerschanze

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Cable car, ski lift and cable car projects

Ring tension brake systemIs familiar with safety issues in cable car construction Stephen Eberhardt perfectly. As a development engineer at Josef Wiegand GmbH, based in Rasdorf in eastern Hesse, he has already taken a leading role in many cable car, ski lift and cable car projects. Even when the Black Forest community of Hinterzarten was looking for a new mountain and valley railway for passenger transport at its traditional Adlerschanze, the request landed on his table.

In addition to basic ecological requirements, the specifications for this project included the simplest possible operation, a high degree of automation and a very high safety standard. As the ideal changing of the guard for the outdated Chairlift The Adlerschanze finally proved to be the product 'Wie-Li'.

"Our Pendulum wieli is a modern pull rope solution in which a train of cars travels up and down hills over rails. In Hinterzarten, this train consists of four coupled cars that allows up to 24 passengers to climb a height difference of 2,4 meters at a speed of up to 80 meters per second,” explains Stefan Eberhardt.

Big winds, mighty slices

Among the important system components of the new ones that have now been put into operation Shuttle train system In addition to the open cars with six seats each and the 200 m long rail line, there is a mountain and valley station as well as a technical command post.

The centrepiece The driving dynamics are formed by the mountain-side winch drive station with its two large cable winches driven by a 55 kW motor and its braking system. From here, the 14 m long wagon train, which weighs almost 5 tons when fully occupied, is driven and controlled.

That means he will be of the two Drum winches pulled uphill via two redundant steel cables and decelerated and stopped downhill by a personal safety braking system. Since the train overcomes maximum gradients of up to 62% during its journey, it doesn't take much imagination to imagine how important the braking system is in this case.

Stefan Eberhardt from Wiegand explains: “As a manufacturer, we have to use a braking system that meets the safety regulations of the EU Directive 2000/9 / EC Fulfills. The components are best selected in such a way that the corresponding certification process is as easy to implement as possible. The EU conformity of the system is proven by certification from a notified body.”

On the way to certification   

ringspann50117In the run-up to the Adlerschanzen project, Eberhardt and his development team were already aware of this BCS 600 noticed that they seemed perfect for implementing complex safety and automation requirements. With the BCS 600, the Bad Homburg company offers an intelligent complete solution for the automated and high-precision control of hydraulically operated or hydraulically released brakes.

It is predestined for implementation demanding braking processes and at the same time takes on essential security and monitoring functions. “We were immediately impressed by this system consisting of a control unit with an integrated hydraulic unit and the industrial brakes because it seemed to us to be the ideal solution for the emergency stop system of our rail-guided Wie-Li. However, there was one downer: It did not yet have any special EU cable car approval,” reports Stefan Eberhard.

What would have been a knockout for other brake manufacturers, turned out to be just a small hurdle for the drive specialist. The BCS 600 was developed especially on the basis of the know-how that has grown in the company over decades in car technology, in mining conveyor technology and in the escalator technology. "In other words, both engineering knowledge from passenger transport and cable winch and winch technology has been incorporated here.


 Devices for braking energy recuperation for electric drives


It was therefore easy for us to provide the necessary support in certifying the braking system,” explains Franz Eisele, who heads the brakes and clutches division at Ringspann. Accelerated by the administrative support and the transfer of know-how with the Wiegand development team, Franz Eisele and his braking technology specialists were able to quickly implement all the requirements that were necessary for certification according to the EU cable car directive. This paved the way for the use of the braking system in the safety concept of the Wie-Li facility at the Adlerschanze.

Four brakes with different tasks

ringspann60117A total of four brakes are responsible for the driving dynamics of the Wiegand commuter train. While for general driving (uphill, downhill, standstill) one electric and one electromechanical brake are responsible, two spring-operated and hydraulically released disc brakes of type HW 075 FHM form the safety and emergency stop system of the Wie-Li system. They develop their clamping forces of up to 40 kN each on two powerful brake discs, which are located on the outer faces of the cable drums.

These brakes are normally closed and designed so that in an emergency, each one can provide the necessary total braking power on its own (redundancy). If a rope breaks or the drive fails, the safety brakes are activated and stop the wagon train. Regardless of the weight of the wagons and the gradient, they maintain a constant deceleration of around 1,0 m/s². If the entire Wie-Li system is switched off, the brakes act as holding brakes.

The intelligent control and monitoring of the safety brakes takes place in the BCS 600. This system makes it possible to precisely control the braking force of hydraulically operated and hydraulically released brakes. This is done by precisely regulating the hydraulic pressure, whereby the actual values ​​of speed or hydraulic pressure are compared with the target values ​​in a real-time measurement. “If the measured deviations are too large, the hydraulic pressure is adjusted accordingly, thereby achieving the preset braking time or deceleration. At the same time, particularly flat braking ramps at the end of braking protect the dynamic load on the system,” explains Achim Mayer, development engineer at Ringspann.

Three brake ramp functions control and monitor braking

Ringspann brake AdlerschanzeBasically, the BCS 600 enables the control and monitoring of the braking processes according to three different specifications or with three different ones Braking ramp functions: A defined braking time, a specified deceleration or a specific number of revolutions (braking distance).

Emphasized Achim Mayerthat “quick bridging of the brake gap and regular clean braking of the brake disc ensure the shortest reaction times and ensure high friction values ​​right from the start of the braking process”. In an emergency, the two safety brakes on the cable winches of the Wie-Li system would immediately apply force and bring the system to a standstill.

The inner workings of the BCS 600 include a fast IPC real-time capable operating system and a controller with a variable selection of I/Os that ensure fast measured value processing and delay-free control and regulation. About the Fieldbus-Ethercat, Profibus, CAN open interfaces, the braking system is integrated into the higher-level system and allows bidirectional communication.

“In addition, there is the possibility of integrating the braking system into the Operator's network to integrate. Using the Ethernet connection, he can then follow the braking processes in real time or check the current operating data without having to be present on site,” explains development engineer Mayer. Other quality features of the BCS 600 include an intelligent design of the hydraulic unit, the use of resilient, high-quality components and seat valve technology with a large cross-section. The BCS 600 is also optionally available with a touch panel.

Eberhardt ringsRing spider EiseleMayer rings

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