Assessment of current collection quality of ETR1000-V300 Zefiro pantograph: an innovative measurement set-up and test results

The standard EN50317 provides the guidelines for on board measurements of the dynamic interaction between pantograph and overhead line. The quality of current collection system and its safe operation is typically evaluated by measuring the total contact force, which is obtained as the sum of the forces acting between each collector and its suspension, the compensation of inertial effects evaluated by means of collector acceleration and the compensation of the mean aerodynamic lift forces acting on the collector strips. As known, measurements on pantograph in operating conditions are very critical, due to the high working voltage (25 kV a.c. or 3 kV d.c. for the Italian high-speed networks). In this paper, an innovative set-up for the measurement of contact force, fully based on Fibre Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors, developed on purpose for the assessment of the current collection quality of ETR100-V300 Zefiro pantographs is presented. The calibration in laboratory of the instrumented pantograph according to EN50317 is described, demonstrating the good performances of the measurement set up and its usability for the homologation of the ETR1000-V300 Zefiro pantograph.