MSc Traction and Deutsche Bahn sign contract of ICE3 SIL2 -compliant battery chargers

MSc Traction Oy will design and manufacture new battery chargers that fulfil requirements according to SIL2 to Deutsche Bahn for ICE3 high speed trains.

The contract consists of the first set of total 450 battery chargers. The new converter will replace the original battery chargers which have come to end of life.

Resulting from a risk analysis for the battery chargers, carried out by Deutsche Bahn, it was concluded that the battery chargers must fulfil the requirements of SIL2 (SIL=Safety Integrity Level). The fulfilment of SIL2 requirements will be assessed by an Independent Safety Assessment (ISA) body. SIL 2 is generally used in safety critical environments like nuclear power plants.

The ICE3 battery charger is a two way converter system, which in normal operation charges the batteries, but can also feed current from the battery to the critical systems of the train on cases where the current supply from the overhead line is not available.

MSc Traction was selected as the supplier of the battery chargers via a public tendering process.

Deutsche Bahn is the largest railway operator and infrastructure owner in Europe. The ICE3 trains are the most widely used high speed train in Europe. 

MSc specializes in power converters for smart grid and industrial applications, and auxiliary power converters for rail vehicles. MSc has over 35 years of experience and has delivered over 16 000 power converters worldwide. MSc products are known of their quality, reliability and long lifetime in wide range of applications.