POWERBOX's PB271 and PB315

Designed and Manufactured in Australia specifically for Rolling Stock

More than ever before the Australian Rail Industry is building new Rolling Stock and overhauling existing Rolling Stock.

As with modern motor cars, more and more technology is being crammed on to these trains.

This includes equipment such as data loggers, train radios, on board computers and fuel monitoring systems. However, the train DC battery voltage is too high to power such equipment. Clearly there is an increasing need for DC-to-DC converters suitable for use on Rolling Stock to convert the train battery voltage to a lower, usable voltage.

Since the result of a breakdown could be catastrophic, railway converters must be reliable, rugged and safe. They must be able to supply the load under extreme or abnormal running conditions. In addition, they must be specifically designed to withstand harsh electrical stresses (spikes, bursts), physical stresses (shock, vibration) and environmental stresses (dust, moisture, pollution ingress, high temperatures).

To meet this increasing demand Powerbox has designed high performance railway converters PB271 and PB315. The PB271 converts 45-154Vdc to either 12 or 24Vdc at 150W.

The PB315 railway converts 45-154Vdc to 24Vdc at 500W.

Both these units are specifically designed “from the ground up” for Rolling Stock and are properly ruggedised against harsh running conditions. These units meet EN50155 and EN50121 and are designed conservatively, not to minimum tolerance. The units feature fault protection, which resets automatically as soon as fault is removed.  No manual resetting by technicians is required, maximizing service time to equipment and minimizing down time and maintenance.

PB271 and PB315 railway converters are not only designed to “withstand” the stresses encountered, they are designed to minimize their effect, resulting in lower component stress and longer life with high reliability. For example, integral heatsinking of components, multiple thermal paths and low thermal resistance maximises heat dissipation and keeps components cool and thermal stress low.