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Innovative ABB technologies power the rail systems of future
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THE Gotthard massif in the northwestern Alps is one of the continent’s most formidable natural barriers, a key trade route for goods travelling from Germany to Italy, and also an important military stronghold. The only way to cross the Gotthard until modern times was by negotiating a narrow pass that forded turbulent rivers and scaled sheer granite gorges.
Excavations began in 1871 and it was a slow and risky progress, with the tunnel advancing by just a meter a day in the beginning. But when it was finally completed, 10 years later, it was the world’s longest tunnel, and one of its greatest engineering achievements. It was this line that was first electrified by Brown Boveri & Co, the forerunner to ABB, in the 1920s.
Continuing more than a 125-year history of innovation, ABB is a pioneering technology leader in electrification products, robotics and motion, industrial automation and power grids. Now, ABB engineering has helped complete a new tunnel — and one of the most groundbreaking rail projects ever attempted. The newly-completed tunnel reaches through the very base of the Gotthard massif, to form the longest and the deepest rail tunnel anywhere on the globe — powered and ventilated by ABB engineering.
The close to 57 kilometers and world’s longest railway tunnel contains a broad range of innovative and energy efficient ABB technologies. The scope of supply includes about 300 transformers and 899 switchgear systems — in fact, the Gotthard base tunnel relies on more of these components than the entire distribution grid of many mid-sized Swiss cities, such as St Gallen.
“This presence also stands for the contribution of ABB with the components installed for the implementation of the century-old construction project. The tunnel also contains a broad range of ABB technologies,” said ABB’s CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer.
As a global leading supplier in urban rail transit, ABB has been vigorously promoting the localization of its entire value chain, including manufacturing, R&D and engineering service, for many years to better serve the Chinese market. In April 2016, ABB localized the production of traction motors for urban rail vehicles in Shanghai, as the latest initiative to deepen its localization strategy. The first batch has passed the routine and type tests. Adopting ABB’s global quality standards, the “made-in-China” traction motors are tailor made based on customers’ requirements so as to meet China’s fast-growing market demands for urban transport.
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