Pumps for Italian high-speed trainsJuly 2009 saw the KSB Group win an order for the supply of 120 Etaseco canned motor pumps. The pump sets are destined for use in French-built high-speed trains by 2011.
The first customer for these new trains is NTV (Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori), a private Italian railroad company which placed an order for 25 trains early in 2008. The trains are designed to carry 500 passengers each and will travel from Milano to Torino and Naples and commute between Rome, Venice and Bari from 2011.
Because of the high powers of the electric drives, the traction systems’ power converters are no longer air-cooled but liquid-cooled. The leak-free pumps keep a glycol-water mixture circulating in the cooling systems. The German pump manufacturer won the contract because the company has already supplied close to 20,000 pump sets of this type for use in high-speed trains, high-performance locomotives and suburban trains around the globe.
One reason why this pump type has been so successful in these applications is that it meets the train manufacturers’ stringent requirements with regard to quality, vibration characteristics, noise levels, service intervals and MTBF value (Mean Time Between Failures).
On a test track, a prototype of the new train has achieved a maximum speed exceeding that of its predecessor, TGV, by 40 kilometres per hour.
Photos: From 2011, the private Italian railroad company NTV (Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori) will run high-speed trains equipped with KSB pumps.
The trains will travel from Milano to Torino and Naples and commute between Rome, Venice and Bari. (Nuovo Trasporto Viaggiatori S.p.A, and KSB Aktiengesellschaft)
