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Robot-assisted cleaning of subway sets at Wiener Linien

17.05.2019

The order was placed in 2017 at igm Robotersysteme AG to replace the first plant at the operation station “Wasserleitungswiese” of Wiener Linien, which has been in operation since 1988. At that time, two longitudinal carriages were implemented on each side for cleaning a single set (double railcar) of the Viennese subway of type U. The new igm robot installation is also suitable for type V (a continuous permanently coupled six-carriage train, divided into 3 parts for cleaning) and consists of one longitudinal carriage way on each side in a special slim design with a travel distance of 27 m. In addition, there is the 2-stage dust exhaust system as well as light barriers and doors with safety limit switches for access protection.

One igm RTE 456 robot is used per carriage way for compressed air cleaning of the switch boxes of the underground trains. For this purpose, ball blow-out heads with 19 nozzles are used identical to the old system. The program runs for approx. 30 minutes. Since the underground trains can only be retracted to an accuracy of a few centimetres, the control boxes are searched for with "gas nozzle searching" via the blow-out head before the cleaning process starts. The program is called up by entering the wagon number on the main control panel.