AUMA at conference on tunnel safety

Muelheim, 04 April 2008

4. International conference Tunnel Safety and Ventilation
- New developments on tunnel safety -

Messecenter Graz -Tagungszentrum on 21 - 22 April 2008

Electric actuators are gear motors which have been designed for the remote control of valves and dampers.

Safe communication

With regard to data communication, two specific tasks have to be solved in the automation of tunnel ventilation and exhaust systems:

• Long distances between the control room and the actuators and between the actuators themselves.
• High data reliability. To be able to react in the event of a fire.

Data reliability can be achieved by doubling the components involved. AUMA supports several redundancy concepts. The data cables have to be designed as redundant cables; however it is also possible to obtain AUMA actuators with two bus interfaces.

The long distances can be covered using fibre optic cables which are directly connected to the actuators. Profibus DP has become the established standard bus protocol
. However, AUMA also offers other fieldbus systems such as Modbus, Foundation Fieldbus, etc. When using the SIMA Master Station by AUMA, it is possible to install a redundant Modbus RTU loop with copper cables up to a cable length of 150 km.

A large number of references

AUMA actuators have proved their suitability on many projects. More than 2,000 actuators are installed in more than 20 tunnels, including the Tauern tunnel, the Gotthard tunnel or the Arlberg tunnel, for example.