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Eurostar's High Speed Express Uses High Speed CC-Link Network

ControlGlobal.com
01/11/2010

A new CC-Link open network solution is helping Eurostar improve reliability on its LDA system.

Eurostar is the high-speed rail service directly linking the UK to France and Belgium via the Channel Tunnel. As the market leader with 60% of the London-Paris market and around 45% of the London-Brussels route, Eurostar prides itself on offering a quality service and a clean environment.

To ensure perfect sanitary conditions, they used Abbeyfield Electrical Services (part of the EPMS group of companies) to automate their Lavatory Discharge Apron or LDA system. This system maintains the hygienic cleaning of all train toilets and disposal of waste from the carriage tanks.

One of the main objectives of the new system was to increase reliability and efficiency of the LDA cleaning system. The previous control philosophy was semi automatic and consisted of PLCs connected to a twisted pair network.  The old system was very unreliable, with the network crashing at least once a week, due to noise and other factors. It also had no feedback, preventing optimisation of cleaning times or tuning of the system.