Modern traffic engineering is inconceivable without electronics, metrology and communications technology. To keep road, rail, water and air traffic flowing, a growing number of decentralized systems are deployed, packed with sensitive electronics that need to be air-conditioned to handle ambient conditions.
For this task, ELMEKO has developed coolers, heaters and dehumidifiers that are robust and low maintenance and work reliably even under conditions made extreme by heat, dust or vibration.
From traffic lights, parking guidance systems and pollution measurement stations in inner cities to variable message signs and toll systems for motorways and tunnels, decentralized signalling, controlling and monitoring systems are a ubiquitous feature of modern road traffic engineering. They also play a vital role in port, inland waterway and airfield infrastructure
In the world of rail, ticket machines need to work smoothly, regardless of whether they are installed indoors in the shelter of a station building or outdoors on a windswept platform. Other rail applications include outdoor trackside cabinets and switchgear cabinets in electric locomotives, which need to be reliably temperature controlled.
The requirements that these electronic systems have to meet are extremely high. They need to withstand frost and heat, moisture, vibration, dust and water. In mobile applications, such as on ships or in trains, dynamic loads also need to be handled. Constant availability, low maintenance and high ingress protection are essential for outdoor switchgear cabinets. In the case of decentralized systems, energy-saving operation is also an increasingly widespread requirement. Without compact, dependable coolers, heaters and dehumidifiers, this challenge cannot be met.
Semiconductor technology plays a crucial role in these devices; they work with no moving parts or coolant and can thus be mounted in any position. Here, ELMEKO successfully harnesses PTC based heating elements as well as high-performance thermoelectric cooling and dehumidifying systems.
Compact design, mobile application and low energy consumption are salient features of these systems.
