In November 2007, Strukton Railinfra engineers left Chicago after bringing the first three upgraded shuttle trains in commisson at O'Hare airport, to the full satisfaction of the customer. Converteam Canada Inc. now finishes the job by preparing the twelve remaining trains for service. The last train is due to be modified in January 2008.
In March 2006 O’Hare Airport Transportation System (OATS) awarded a contract to overhaul the propulsion systems of 15 fully automatic trains to a consortium consisting of Strukton Railinfra and Converteam Canada Inc.
What followed was a thorough design process in order to realise a seamless integration of new equipment amongst existing components and control systems. The trains are operated fully automatically. An Automatic Train Control System (ATC) executes the tasks that are normally done by a human driver. A lot of reverse engineering was required in order to ensure identical behaviour with the new equipment, because the existing control systems could not be modified.
Following successful factory tests the first modernised propulsion system was installed on one of the vehicles. The modification was executed in July 2007 at the OATS workshop in Chicago, IL.
An extensive testing programme started after initial installation checks and commissioning had been performed. Again, the communication between existing and new systems, required a lot of attention.
The new equipment – an IGBT DC chopper and associated control system – is mounted in one single container. It replaces the existing 20 year old GTO-based motor control box. Installation is very easy because existing interfaces and vehicle cabling are used. Therefore, the vehicle down-time for installing the modernised system is kept to a minimum.
In order to operate and maintain the new equipment OATS staff have been trained extensively.
For additional support a full documentation package and a software monitoring tool have been delivered.
Strukton Railinfra and Converteam were proud to receive positive feedback from the customer with respect to the performance of the new equipment, which is regarded as superior to the old system. Both contractors were thankful for their extremely pleasant cooperation with OATS staff. They specifically thanked Mr. Raj Rambhajan and Mr. Larry Grandy for their support during the execution of this project.