Safety and reliability are cornerstones of the railway world and since the dawn of this iconic and increasingly eco-friendly way of traveling, man has tried to guarantee it by improving every single aspect of it.
It is easy to think how visibility from the cab, as important as it is in the world of high-speed rail, plays an incredible role alongside the Driver in the urban scenario where, today, LRVs are increasingly present.
The world really changes quickly, our streets and cities are increasingly hectic and dynamic thanks to the advent of the latest in electric mobility, everyone is experiencing the experience of being in an urban setting, among pedestrians, bicycles and scooters.
What contribution can we offer by improving the conditions for which our sector, the railway one, is truly safer for those inside and outside the cabin?
It is IntelliArm that accompanies us in the discovery of this tech-article, a product that maximizes the concept of visibility, improving the safety of increasingly chaotic cities.
Visibility in the cabin, it hasn’t always been like today!
The famous view from the cabin, which sadly today fascinates memories of early 20th century trains with all the gauges and instruments that surround it, was certainly not the correct example of Cabin-Design aimed at increasing the safety on both driver and passenger side.
But we were only at the beginning! Certainly the boiler and all the pneumatic parts had to be easy to access in the cabin, a condition that however completely limited the front visibility so much that the drivers had to protrude from the side windows.
Thanks to the advent of electrification, in the following decades, step by step, the cumbersome and limiting boiler gave way to a more modern control desk, which allowed the driver, finally, to have his eyes on what was happening on the tracks. . An increase not to be underestimated in terms of field of vision and cone of vision!
Driver Desk and fields of vision that, if we identified ourselves with a driver, would still accompany us along the very famous railway lines from all over the world.
Going back to the present day, starting from the 2000s, up to the most modern trains, the concept of visibility would seem to have reached an excellent goal and consequently passed into the background, allowing car builders to devote themselves more to equally important topics such as Ergonomics and Technology, which however, according to us at SPII, could be summarized in a single product.
The goal is to recreate a control desk whose essence is the perfect mix of Ergonomics, Style and Design, the result of our mission, maximizing the level of safety that is offered to the driver and those around him.
Field of View and Cone of Visibility
Working together with the professionals of the sector, and with the train drivers who work every day in our cities, crossing thousands of stations, has allowed us to touch on two issues that are very dear to them, and which make the difference if we want to talk about safety and innovation.
Introducing them is a must to better understand why we want to try to maximize them.
Field of view: The field of view is the area that represents the part of the outside world visible when fixing a point and is expressed in m².
Increase visibility by creating a new dimension of safety. Eliminate blind spots, upset the perception of what is happening outside your cabin.
Cone of visibility: Measured in degrees, it is the width of the cone that starts from the driver’s eye and hits the windshield.
Don’t make your work environment an hindrance to your senses. With IntelliArm, the advantage over the cone of visibility is clearly perceptible, offering better safety for you and those around you. The Driver is at the center of the work environment and can focus on what is really important.
IntelliArm in the results
Analyzing the results is easy and intuitive thanks to the metrics we have created by comparing the reference product, IntelliArm, with a classic Driver Desk still in service in Europe today.
The important improvement of these parameters is mainly due to the elimination of the bulky front components that have been repositioned in order to facilitate the driver’s visibility. By improving driving comfort and visibility, the user accumulates less stress and remains more alert, thus increasing safety on board the train.
IntelliArm redefines the standards of visibility thanks to its approach aimed at reducing dimensions and a geometry developed vertically, making it possible to reach all internal components intuitively and easily.
A product resulting from an ambitious path, the first command platform created with the user and engineered for the user, a true extension of command towards the complexity of the world around us.
See you next time,
Paolo Casoretti
