交通 Revolution: Three Game-Changing 创新s

在它的第155个年头，Wabtec创新引擎没有显示出停止的迹象. Look no farther than the company’s 交通 business.

Wabtec是有福的. With roots tracing back to Westinghouse, 爱迪生, 和Faiveley, the company and its approximately 5,000名工程师站在这些工程巨人的肩膀上. But history only gets a Fortune 500 company so far. 今天的Wabtec及其交通部门与其著名的前辈所分享的是突破性创新和持续改进的记录.

“在Wabtec 交通最近的创新历史中，我看到的是能够产生‘大爆炸’技术进步，推动我们的行业发展，并在广泛的系统和组件上进行渐进式改进，不断使世界各地的交通轨道运营商和建设者受益,” says Paolo Pagliero, 副总统, Engineering for Wabtec’s  交通 business. 

创新 in context

这些创新, 无论大小, 是由帕格列罗认为的三个常量塑造的，这些常量是“发明”在实际交付中的基础:

1. 少花钱多办事: Provide advanced functionality, safely and reliably, 在更小的空间里，用更少的重量——这在交通运输行业是至关重要的.
2. Reduce total 生活cycle costs for operators: Ensure innovation extends product 生活 and reduces service costs.
3. Lessen environmental impact: Reduce emissions and improve sustainability wherever possible.

“Those are the big three,” summarizes Pagliero. “交通创新必须满足部分或所有这些条件，以满足客户需求并产生持久的影响.”

Over the last 20 years, Wabtec 交通 has innovated within these parameters, pushing the envelope across its extensive product line, 从刹车, 门, and 暖通空调 systems to pantographs, passenger information systems, 和耦合器, to satisfy industry demands and deliver customer value. Following are a few examples that moved the needle – and the industry. 
 

A ‘brake’ from tradition: Metroflexx and Reggioflexx

在所有的轨道交通系统中，制造商必须做好的就是刹车. No other feature is as synonymous with passenger safety. So when teams of engineers eat, 喝, and sleep brake systems, looking for ways to make them smaller, 更轻的, less costly to operate and maintain, 而且更环保——它们必须在不牺牲安全的情况下这样做.

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为了应对这一挑战，Wabtec 交通的工程师们为公共交通和区域/高速铁路开发了Metroflexx和Reggioflexx制动系统, 分别. The big breakthroughs? Software and additive manufacturing.

Wabtec用软件仿真取代了制动系统中执行安全关键功能的一些气动元件，保持了相同的安全水平. The result: components that are no longer ‘physical’ products and therefore generate no cost beyond development and validation; weigh nothing; have no installation constraints; and require no maintenance. Pushing even farther, Wabtec采用增材制造技术生产其余气动部件, further reducing weight and service costs.

Wabtec的Metroflexx和Reggioflexx集成制动控制系统是效率的典范. They pack a service brake, 紧急刹车, wheel slide protection, communication with train control and management system (TCMS), and advanced diagnostic functions, including condition-based maintenance, into one lightweight, 优雅的设计. 这些可持续发展的设计特点减少了列车的总重量, which contributes to overall fuel efficiency, 同时也提供了支持制动功能所需的能量.

“Metroflexx和Reggioflexx代表了制动系统的重大突破，”Pagliero表示. “Wabtec有效地将制动系统从机电组件发展为软件机器, which unlocked numerous benefits, including optimizing brake use, 生活, and maintenance intervals.” 

Green, blue, fresh, and cool: An ‘air’ of improvement

Green and Blue Friction

在考虑可持续性问题时，公交列车的刹车可能不是乘客首先想到的. 当刹车片与火车车轮或车盘的金属接触时，一些微粒物质会脱落.

即使现代交通列车已经转向电动制动, 由于传统汽车仍在使用摩擦制动器，因此解决微粒问题成为当务之急. 在回应, Wabtec 交通的工程师在摩擦制动材料方面取得了突破性进展，大大减少了制动排放. 在巴黎公共交通运营商RATP的严格现场测试中，Wabtec的Green Friction产品已经证明可以减少90%的微粒.

Green and Fresh Air

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Keeping cool on increasingly hot days is a must for transit commuters, 但空调系统中使用的制冷剂是导致全球变暖的原因. 然而,, where many might have seen an intractable problem, Wabtec 交通的工程师接受了这一挑战，并找到了使用制冷剂R290的可行解决方案, a first in the rail industry.

今天, Wabtec 交通的绿色空气解决方案已被领先的原始设备制造商采用, 该公司正在努力为传统列车进行具有成本效益的改造，以持续保持凉爽.

这种可持续性也是威伯泰克专利解决方案FreshAir®的核心, 自动优化引入外部新鲜空气的数量 进入运输列车与实际乘客人数成比例. Effective in heating and cooling modes, FreshAir使运输运营商能够将暖通空调能耗降低高达30%. And because 暖通空调 is the 2nd largest consumer of power on a train, with a big portion of that related to fresh air treatment, this Wabtec innovation marks a true industry breakthrough.

Inventing the future of rail transit

无论Wabtec 交通的工程师是在忙着开发革命性的新刹车系统还是暖通空调系统, 更清晰的显示, 或者一个打火机门, their innovations merge big dreams with practical commitments.

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“If I could only field a team of ‘dreamers,’ it might be fantastic for innovation,帕格列罗建议道, “but our job at Wabtec is to balance dreams with execution, so our customers can move more people, 更有效地, and more sustainably. Sometimes our ideas are ‘revolutionary,’ and create a whole new category or paradigm of product or capabilities; other times our dreams result in evolutionary progress, making small improvements that collectively, 随着时间的推移, deliver great benefit.”

Whether revolutionary or evolutionary, leveraging software to create smarter, 更高性能的系统可能是未来Wabtec和轨道交通行业最大的机遇.

“今天, if you were to ask me about the role of software, 机器学习, and AI in the future of transit rail, I would tell you they will no doubt be transformational game changers,” concludes Pagliero. “We are focusing on an evolutionary approach for the near term. 例如, 配备了软件智能的暖通空调系统很快就能分辨出火车车门何时打开, and take appropriate actions, 不只是不断地推出冷空气，直到达到设定的温度.

“而我们在建设更多的智能，使交通系统和组件更智能, our engineers will also be dreaming up, 和准备, bigger AI-driven innovations to improve the future of transit.”