Hybrid Cable for Rail Vehicles
Dede Bülbül, Chief Technology Officer with Hradil Spezialkabel GmbH, Bietigheim-Bissingen,
Germany, reports, “The new High- Endurance cable manufactured by Hradil permits the combined
transmission of electrical power and high-speed data across the entire length of the train’s interior
including couplers. The Hradil hybrid cable removes the need to have separate cables for power
and signal transmission, combining both tasks in a single connection cable.
“Additionally, the Cat. 7 hybrid cable is suitable for indoor as well as for mechanically demanding
outdoor use. This means that with a single cable the whole train can be completely connected, even
across couplers. In addition to applications such as ASDN, FDDI, ATM and Cable Sharing, high-speed
applications up to 10 GBase-T IEEE can also be implemented. In spite of this, the hybrid cable by
Hradil has an outer diameter of only 18.6 mm.
“The new High-Endurance hybrid cable meets the exacting fire protection requirements of DIN EN
45545 as well as the HL1-3 Hazard Level 1-3 standards. Hradil’s engineers have designed the cable
to withstand extreme mechanical loads up to 10,000 N and for a bending radius of 10 times the
outer diameter. The black High-Endurance hybrid cable comes in a polyurethane outer jacket made
from a halogen-free HFFR compound. Underneath this black layer there is another insulation in red.
In case of excessive wear, or if the cable jacket becomes damaged, the red color underneath acts as
a warning that the cable should now be replaced for safety reasons.”