Meeting regulatory requirements for mission-critical and non-mission-critical rolling stock power supplies

All the electronics in rolling stock is subject to challenging environmental conditions, from high temperatures in confined spaces to the heavy vibration felt by body- or axle-mounted systems. Power supplies are of course no exception. Ordinary industrial or high reliability power supplies cannot be used in this heavily regulated sector; the demands are so challenging and so specific that specialist power supplies designed and built only for railway applications must be used.

In this week's Engineers' Insight, Philip Lechner examines some of the key regulatory standards for railway applications and how they affect power supply design and system integration