On January 7, a novel urban rail vehicle with wireless power supply rolled off the production line at CRRC TANGSHAN Co., Ltd., embodying a great leap forward from "wired" to "wireless" power supply for the first time in China. The technology of high power and great efficiency was developed by a SWJTU team led by Professor He Zhengyou based on the research project of "Contactless Power Supply Technology for Rail Transit".

The First Urban Rail Vehicle with Wireless Power Supply Nationwide

Pro. He’s team is commissioning the urban rail vehicle with wireless power supply.

SWJTU accomplished the key task for the core theory and technology of the project on "Contactless Power Supply Technology for Rail Transit", and spent more than three years on the top-level design for the wireless power supply system for the new urban rail vehicle.

The wireless technology, an ideal one for power supply schemes of urban rail transit in the future, may result in the replacement of the “pigtail” of traditional pantograph-catenary system for current collection and power supply, and greatly improve the flexibility and safety of rail transit power supply. Since 2010, the University's team, supervised by Academician Qian Qingquan of Chinese Academy of Engineering, pioneered the innovative research on high-power dynamic wireless power supply technology for rail transit in China, broke the ice in the development of core technologies, and advanced the wireless supply from the low-power/static level of 10kW to the high-power/dynamic one of 500kW. In October 2013, China’s first prototype of 40kW rail vehicle with dynamic wireless power supply was manufactured at the University, and CCTV made a special report on the success in 2017. High rank officers of China Railway and Sichuan Province paid eager visits to the newborn and enjoyed test rides one after another. Ten years’ dedication of the team has yielded abundant research achievements in this field, including an academic monograph, Wireless Power Supply Technology for Rail Transit, over 40 invention patents, and more than 30 papers published on IEEE Transactions. The SWJTU team maintains its momentum and furthers research on wireless power supply for high-speed trains, maglev trains, port AGVs, special vehicles, etc.

Series of Prototypes Made by SWJTU

Prototype (Power: 40kW; Efficiency: over 80%; Distance: 5cm)

Prototype (Power: 500kW; Efficiency: over 90%; Distance: 15cm)