Liebherr Downloads User Manual
Page 12
12
Liebherr at Railway Interchange Exhibition
in Minneapolis
Liebherr-Transportation Systems partici-
pated in the Railway Interchange exhibi-
tion held at the Minneapolis Convention
Center (Minnesota, USA) from Septem-
ber 18 - 20, 2011. The company ex-
hibited as part of the “Made in Germa-
ny” booth which had been organized
and promoted by the German Ministry
of Economy and Technology. Although
Railway Interchange is an exhibition for
primarily railway infrastructure and sup-
port suppliers, Liebherr-Transportation
Systems made numerous contacts
at the exhibition and promoted other
Liebherr products illustrating the diver-
sified portfolio.
Railway Interchange offered various
technical forums as well as an indoor
and an outdoor exhibition on two sep-
arate sites. It was hosted by American
Railway Engineering & Maintenance-of-
way Association (AREMA), Railway Supply
Institute (RSI), Railway Engineering-
Maintenance Suppliers Association
(REMSA), and Railway Systems Suppli-
ers Inc. (RSSI) – four organizations that
represent companies and individuals in-
volved in the railway and the rail industry.
Liebherr Aerospace Saline, Inc. Provides Services
for Rail Vehicle Industry
Liebherr Aerospace Saline, Inc. is now also
engaged in servicing transportation sys-
tems. The company has recently estab-
lished a test area to service Liebherr’s level-
ing systems. By 2016, 706 rail cars will be
equipped with these systems and delivered
to the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), which
operates the transit system of the Chicago
metropolitan area (Illinois, USA). The leve-
ling system adjusts the boarding height of
the vehicle to the station or platform. The
final assembly of the rail cars will be per-
formed by Bombardier Transportation in
Plattsburgh (New York, USA).
Liebherr Aerospace Saline, Inc. provides
technical support to Bombardier’s as-
sembly line and at the rail vehicle oper-
ators’ facilities as well as in-house repair
services. Over 40 maintenances have
been performed to date.
The Chicago metropolitan area dispos-
es of the second largest rail transit net-
work in the USA. Efficient functioning
of transport infrastructure is essential
to meet the needs of the approximate-
ly 10 million inhabitants. For this rea-
son, the Chicago Transit Authority has
started to modernize its transit system
and ordered 706 new vehicles from
Bombardier Transportation. These 5000
Series trains are the first ones anywhere
in North America to incorporate the ac-
tive hydraulic leveling systems built by
Liebherr-Aerospace Lindenberg GmbH
(Germany). This is the biggest single or-
der the company has ever won in the
transportation sector.
Each system consists of one hydraulic
unit, four hydraulically adjustable sus-
pension struts between the running
gear and the coach frame, four verti-
cal dampers, a control device and a hy-
draulic storage cylinder, the latter serv-
ing as an energy source in case of fault.
In addition to the supply and control
elements for the level-adjustment sys-
tem, the hydraulic unit incorporates an
independent supply for the brake sys-
tem including control and safety valves.
After the first leveling systems had been
approved of by the customer in spring
2008, Liebherr started producing them
in series (please refer to page 13).
Chicago Transit
Authority (CTA) rail car
© Bombardier
Transportation
Transportation Systems