Fribourg, Switzerland

Delivery: 2003

In order to renew the fleet and improve the customer service, the city of Fribourg has procured nine duo-trolleybuses.
The Swiss-Trolley II was developed as a state-of-the-art aluminium lightweight construction together with Carrosserie HESS AG and Neoplan.
Thanks to this 100% low-floor vehicle Fribourg succeeded in continuing its environment-friendly public transport policy.

Fribourg is positioned on the edge of the Jura massif, and this demanding topography requires much from the vehicle. Long, steep gradients of up to 12% also have to be coped with in the snowy winter. With the help of the reliable and proven Kiepe traction control, the available energy is converted and optionally transferred to the wheels.

For this purpose a new, compacter and optimised Kiepe traction inverter with a high output is available. The high driving torque required by the electric motor is transferred to the axle via an intermediate gearbox fitted to the traction motor. The electronic units, central control circuit device (ZLG) and inverter control module (USM), are used to control the drive.
These units, which use with several processors, do not only take over the sequential vehicle control and the acquisition of operational data, but also the complete diagnosis of the traction drive and the calculation of the energy to be consumed by the vehicle.

To allow extensive exchange of data in the vehicle, all main components are also connected to the CANopen car bus. The consequent development and the direct connection of the driver´s workplace to the Kiepe data bus allow visualisation of various up-to-date information on the colour display at the driver´s workplace.

To supply the auxiliary and secondary units of the vehicle, during diesel-electric operation or during contact line operation, a recently developed state-of-the-art IGBT controlled on-board converter is installed. This on-board converter supplies the AC 400 V three-phase system, isolated from the overhead contact line, and the DC 24 V system from the bus-internal DC 600 V level. Moreover, it also charges the batteries. Thanks to high-frequency galvanic isolation, it was possible to both reduce the unit volume and increase the output. The complete traction electronics has been designed modularly and integrated into the vehicle on its roof using a space-saving concept.

The Kiepe current collector system has not only been provided with safety-relevant functions such as quick lowering in case of dewirement and centring of the current collector poles in the middle when they are lowered, but also with automatic fixing of the poles on the roof. The system makes it possible for the driver to place the poles onto the overhead contact line directly from his workplace when he enters a route section with overhead contact line.

To make it possible to operate the vehicles without restrictions, the vehicles were equipped with a full hybrid duodrive as well as the current collector system for overhead contact line operation without pollution gases. In hybrid operation the environment is also treated gently, in accordance with today´s standards, as the 206 kW MAN diesel engine has been EURO III certified.
The double insulation prescribed for trolleybuses is achieved and monitored by the Kiepe hot body detector.

Thanks to this Swiss-Trolley II an additional vehicle of the latest generation with intelligent and proven drive technology from Kiepe is now available to the passengers.

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