LÜTZE supports the French railway operator VFLI with the modernization of the locomotive family 63500. In addition to modular control system components and compact interfaces and assembly units, vehicle specific special developments are also being used to bring the vehicle in line with the latest state of the art.

In 1998, the SNCF subsidiary VFLI was founded to serve regional freight routes and industrial connection lines as a "low cost carrier". Already after 10 years, VFLI was one of six companies to receive the licence to operate the French route network. The wide-ranging competence of the company covers a broad spectrum of tasks in the field of transportation and rail logistics. In addition to rail freight traffic and logistics, the vehicle modernization represents a core area of competence in the area of motor inspection and repair. Apart from that, VFLI also sets itself apart through its vast experience in the maintenance and repair of vehicles as well as in engineering infrastructure (functional expertise, project management).

In the course of modernizing the locomotive, numerous technological improvements were implemented in collaboration with LÜTZE in order to bring the control technology of the vehicles with limited space in line with the latest state of the art.

To supplement this control technology, VFLI has opted for the DIOLINE 20 family with CANopen field bus technology. The modules are deployed for monitoring the temperature of various vehicle subfunctions (please see Figure 1). The compact and modular design of the DIOLINE 20 modules was a decisive criterion for the choice. Apart from the advantage that these modules can be installed in any position, this helped the VFLI engineers to take full advantage of the space available in the control cabinets of the locomotives. DIOLINE 20 can be installed on DIN rails, which greatly facilitates the installation of the modules in the control cabinet.

Apart from the the CANopen variant used by VFLI, bus couplers for MVB and ethernet are available for the DIOLINE 20 family, too. Up to 10 modules can be connected to one coupler. LÜTZE provides here a complete range of digital and analogue I/O modules for all standard signal types in rail vehicles. Thanks to the wide range of modules, VFLI was able to create the optimal configurations.

Further significant space savings resulted by using compact interface modules from LÜTZE, such as diode modules, 6.2 mm miniature relays and microcompact interface converters (please see Figure 2). Consequently, valuable space could be saved in the control cabinet and the complex wiring could be simplified. The compact product lines for the DIN rail mounting comply with the railway standards including the fire safety requirements
 according to NFF16101-102. Furthermore, they comply with the classification I2/F2.

For functions that could not be provided with the extensive standard product range of LÜTZE, special subassemblies were specifically developed for the project. For example, a threshold switch for data logging and functional testing of the parking brake.

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