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            Electronically Controlled Pneumatic Brake Device with Pneumatic Brake Emulation – Field Demonstration
      

      
  Document Series
              Technical Reports


      
  Author
          Federal Railroad Administration


      
Report Number
              DOT/FRA/ORD-22/12

  Office
              RDI-22


      Subject
                    Braking Systems


      
  Keywords
              Air brake, brake controller, Car Control Device, CCD, Car ID module, Electronically Controlled Pneumatic, ECP, brakes, emergency application, end-of-train, EOT, full service application, graduated application, minimum service, graduated release, S-4200


      

      
      
              
                  
      
              
  Document
              ECP Brake Device.pdf (4.05 MB)

      
              Electronically Controlled Pneumatic (ECP) brake technology can improve both safety and braking performance of trains. One of the technical barriers is the interchange requirement of a freight car. This barrier can be addressed either by an overlay ECP or an ECP emulator. Under a previous effort, Sharma & Associates (SA) procured three sets of emulator car brake equipment from Zeftron. Hardware and software modifications were identified and implemented to the system to comply with S-4200, including limited fault testing using laboratory setting. This effort reports the interoperability compliance testing of the emulator under field conditions with other ECP industry vendor’s locomotive and freight car equipment. Initialization procedures, including car sequencing and train building, were completed under the ECP mode. Graduated application and release tests were performed in RUN and SWITCH and CUTOUT modes. Subsequently, fault tests were conducted as prescribed in S-4200. Pneumatic tests were carried out under emulation mode. The testing revealed minor issues relative to dynamic addressing, sequencing, and low battery detection. Appropriate software modifications were made and tested in the laboratory confirming that the emulator Car Control Device (CCD) passed all required tests. Researchers recommend that the emulator system be evaluated for environmental compliance.
      
            
      
      
              Last updated: Wednesday, March 9, 2022 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

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