ADD - Automatic Emergency Drop

Damaged pantographs can have significant effects on vehicle operation and result in economic losses in line operation. For example if traction units drive with damaged contact strips, this usually leads to damage to the overhead lines over the distance of several kilometres. Therefore, we developed an automatic emergency drop (automatic dropping device).

The system makes sure that pantographs with damaged contact strips or collector heads are lowered fully automatically. Therefore, secondary damage to the overhead line is minimised.
A sequential switching by the system also causes a lowering of the subsequent pantographs so that these are actively protected against being damaged. Overall, the repair and follow-up costs for traction units and railway overhead lines can be significantly reduced by the system.