The85-tonne tunnel cleaner
Servopneumaticsoptimises tunnel cleaning train
Cleanlinessmeanssafety
in theunderground rail tunnelsofmajor cities.
Finedust and coarsedirt impair efficiencyandposeahealth risk for
passengersandemployees. Anew tunnel cleaning train fromSchörling
Kommunal GmbH cleansmorequicklyandprecisely thanever before.
The tentacle-likesuctionnozzlesandsuction feet arepositionedusing
the latest servopneumatics from Festo.
Theninesuctionnozzles
aremoved into the
requiredpositionusingservopneumatics.
Big insize, big inperformance:
Weighing inat 85 tonnesandmeasuring40metres in length, the tunnel cleaning
train removesdirt from tunnelwallsand trackbedson tracksectionsof up to5kilometreseveryhour.
E
xtensivemetroandunderground
rail networksareanessential part
of the infrastructureofmajor cities
all over theworld. Themetro
systemsof Beijing, Shanghai, Londonand
NewYorkCityhavenetworksextending
well over 400kilometres.Millionsof
people travel through their tunnelsevery
day. Underground rail systemsare fast,
cleanandsignificantlysafer than road
traffic. Toensure that this remains the
case, the tunnelshave tobe cleaned regu-
larly to removefinedust aswell as larger
itemssuchasplasticbottlesandpaper.
This is the ideal job for thenew tunnel
cleaning train fromSchörlingKommunal
GmbH inHanover. Equippedwith the
latest servopneumaticdrive technology
from Festo, thenewsuctionunit cleans
underground rail tunnels faster andmore
reliably thanever before.
Five cleankilometresperhour
Althoughunderground rail tunnelsget
dirtyat amuchslower rate than roads,
timeeventually leaves itsmark. Thefine
dust that isdepositedovermanyyears
poseshealth risks for passengersand
metroemployeesand increasesmachine
wear over the long term. Inmanyunder-
ground rail networks, cleaning isstill
donemanually. This is time-, labour- and
cost-intensive.
Thenew tunnel cleaning train from
Schörlingsetsnewstandards inquick
cleaning. Its innovativedry cleaning tech-
nology removesfinedust and coarsedirt
fromup tofivekilometresof tunnel per
hour.Whennot cleaning, it can travel at
speedsof up to70km/h.
Puttingdirt under pressure
Thenew tunnel cleaning trainweighsa
full 85 tonnesand is40metres long. The
cleaningunit ispositionedbetween two
locomotives, eachofwhichhasan identi-
cal driver’scab.The tunnel traincan there-
fore travel in the requireddirection for
cleaningwithout having to turn. Directly
behind thedriver’s cabssit theunits for
thehydraulicdrive,whichcanbeprecisely
adjustedevenat lowspeeds. Above these
are the largefilter systems for coarseand
finedirt. Containers for coarsedirt are
followedbyfinedust filter systems,which
areblownout onceapredefineddegree
of contamination is reached. Thedirt falls
down intocollectingbowls,whichare then
emptiedbyemployees. Thanks to their
state-of-the-art cleaning technology, the
filter elementsshould last at least five
years. Each trainhalf has three fans, each
withasuctionof6m³/s.The fansgenerate
compressedair,which isusedby thehigh-
pressure jetsof thesuctionnozzles toblast
dirt from the tunnelwalls, andavacuum,
which immediatelysucksup theswirling
dust and feeds it to thefilter systems.
Keeping theprofile inview
Witha clearanceof between100mmand
300mm, thesuctionnozzlesandsuction
feet follow the tunnelwall and track
1.2014
trends inautomation
Synergies
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