Italy operates the longest railway tunnel network in Europe. Of the 16,800 kilometres of track, around 12,200 kilometres are electrified and a total of about 1,500 kilometres run through tunnels. European law requires, among other things, the grounding of the overhead power line for Railway tunnels longer than one kilometre.
The Italian system integrator Mont-ELE SRL developed an automatic and remote-controlled grounding control system. They chose HIMA’s safety controllers, as HIMA is a global provider of safety-related automation solutions for the rail and process industries.
"In addition to their SIL 4 certification, it was important to us that HIMA’s HIMatrix controllers can be easily integrated into our systems and flexibly adapted to the client’s specific requirements," explains Andrea Viganò, Project Engineer at Mont-ELE.
The high-speed "Galleria Ceraino" tunnel on the Verona to Brennero line is over 4.3 kilometres long and serves as a pilot project for the nationwide introduction of this innovative safety technology. This pilot sets new standards in terms of safety: the STES (Sottosistema Trazione Elettrica di Sicurezza) automatic earthing system allows remote earthing control from a central control centre. The safe electrical isolation of the overhead lines and their grounding not only provides life-saving protection for travellers, but also facilitates maintenance and repair work.
"Our safety technology paves the way for the safe and efficient mobility of the future and we consider the European rail sector to be one of the most important growth markets," emphasizes Jörg de la Motte, CEO of the HIMA Group.
HIMA’s HIMatrix safety controllers are not only certified to SIL 4 in accordance with CENELEC, meeting the highest safety and security standards; their fast response times make them appropriate for a wide variety of safety-critical application scenarios. These are two of the reasons why they will be implemented in Italy’s nationwide route network.
