Unconventional Solutions for the Improvement of Pantograph-Catenary Interactions

In electric railway traction the current collection results from the contact between the moving pantograph and the overhead contact wire. The effects of the interaction between the overhead line and the moving pantograph are more severe at high speed (over 250 km/h), especially in the Italian railways, where the feeding voltage is 3 KV D.C. and where a pantograph for high speed operations is collecting currents up to 2500 A. Conventional solutions for improving the quality of the pantograph-catenary interactions are usually approached under the point of view of the mechanical aspects, i.e. by means of scheduled inspections and maintenance activities along the overhead wire. This paper summarizes the origin and the effects of the main wearing phenomena in the overhead supply lines, suggesting unconventional electric solutions for reducing the intensity and duration of the arcs, whose thermal effects give a relevant negative contribution to the problem.