What is EN50155 Railway Compliance Standard? And Its Importance for Railway Computers
Why do In-Vehicle Industrial Computers have EN50155 Railway Certification?
An EN50155 Railway Certification proves that the computer has been rigorously tested and approved for rolling stock installation and railway deployments. As railway vehicles become more advanced and intelligent, there is a demand for ruggedized computers that can: withstand harsh outdoor environments and railway conditions, reliably operate for extensive periods of time with no maintenance, seamlessly connect multiple IoT devices and sensors, and provide the necessary compute power needed to drive all the IoT components. Railway computers and other electronic equipment must be validated and approved by EN50155 in order to be installed onto rolling stock. In-Vehicle computers are purpose-built to be installed onto mobile applications like railways, transit buses, and more because they can support all the features necessary.
What is EN50155 Railway Compliance Standard?
EN50155 is a strict railway compliance standard for all electronic equipment that is being installed onto rolling stock (or rail vehicle). Equipment is put through numerous performance examinations, performance and insulation tests, that determine the equipment’s reliability of operation, design, and construction. This ensures that all equipment on-board the rolling stock is certified to be “competent and reliable equipment” that does not require maintenance can operate seamlessly until the end of its life cycle. This procedure and standard allow railway workers to confidently operate rolling stock without having to worry about electronic equipment integrity and maintenance, and instead, orient their focus on more crucial tasks at hand.
EN50155 Performance and Insulation Tests
Because electronic equipment, especially computers, are sensitive to vibrations and voltage issues where malfunctions often occur, EN50155 requires all computers to remain functional after various performance and insulation tests. These tests are conducted to ensure that the electronic equipment can withstand all the harsh conditions that rolling stock encounters. Here is the list of all the tests, some optional, that the equipment will undergo:
Performance Tests: cooling, dry heat, damp heat, overvoltage, surges (electrostatic discharge and transient burst susceptibility), and radio interference tests
Insulation Tests: Salt mist, vibration, shock, bump, watertightness, equipment stress screening, and low temperature storage tests
Shock and Vibration
Equipment must be designed to withstand the shock and vibration that is generated from rolling stock. Traditional electronics are sensitive to this element and are susceptible to internal damage if they undergo vibrational stress. EN 50155 refers to the EN 61373 standard to provide confidence that the equipment is capable of withstanding vibration, shock, and bump without deterioration or malfunction under its life cycle. The design of the equipment is also inspected to ensure that the architecture has the appropriate fixings and anti-vibration mounts are placed accordingly.
Operating Temperature
EN50155 sets a wide operating temperature range of –25 to 70°C. Most computers would not be able to handle such high temperatures without a fan, however, to solidify a ruggedized form factor, most industrial computers are passively cooled with a hardened encasing that acts as a heatsink to draw heat out of the internals and dissipate into the surrounding air. This ensures that all equipment are capable of operating without failure in any thermal conditions whether it be cold or hot.
Power Supply Compatibility
Electronic equipment must be able to intake various voltage supplies at intervals (24, 48, 72, 96, and 110VDC) and be protected from overvoltage and surges that may occur during railway deployments. Also, it is required that equipment remain operatable if there are power interruptions of 10ms. Typically, computers will use converters of 9-48V, 18-72V, and 40-110V to enable wide voltage range compatibility. C&T's In-Vehicle Computer supports 9V-48V and 48-110V for wide power input compatibility.
Electromagnetic Interference
Like the features of CAN Bus, electronic equipment must have aspects of emissions and immunity of electromagnetic compatibility (EMC). The computer must be enclosed and cannot emit any radio frequency while also being immune to outside radio frequencies. This is tested through a radio frequency interference (RFI) susceptibility test and calls to EN 50121-3-2 and EN50121-4 standards for further EMC conformity. This allows the equipment to operate within the same compartments and will not have any interference that can disrupt the performance of surrounding electronics.
EN50155 Fanless Railway Computers
ACO-6000-CML
C&T’s In-Vehicle Computer, ACO-6000-CML Series, is EN50155 Certified for railway applications. By using a fanless and cable-less architecture, C&T has eliminated detrimental factors that could cause system malfunctions. A cable-less circuit board removes the odds of cables unsocketing due to constant vibrations and shock of railway movements. The fanless design prevents contaminants and debris from entering the system and harming the internals. Lastly, the fortified case ensures all internal components are fastened and secured in place while providing passive cooling to the CPU with a heatsink incorporated into the case design.
Key Features:
- 10th Gen Intel CML or Xeon W 1290TE Processor
- 2x Hotswappable External SATA SSD, 1x Internal SATA SSD
- 8x I/O expansion slots
- Built-in Embedded CAN Bus
- Power Ignition Management
- Wide power input range (9-48VDC / 48-100VDC)
- Wide operating temperature range (-25°C -70°C)
Our railway computer is constructed to be validated by EN50155 to ensure its reliability and performance for rolling stock installation. Because of the demand for a high-performance computer for rolling stock deployment, the ACO-6000-CML is engineered and designed specifically to provide the needed high-performance processing power with its latest 10th Intel CML S Processor or server-grade Xeon-W 1290TE Processor and W480E Intel chipset at the rugged edge. ACO-6000-CML can support up to 16x I/O ports, allowing for workload consolidation with various IoT configurations. Additionally, it uses key technologies that enable intelligent transportation such as: CAN Bus protocol, Power Ignition Management, and additional PCIe slots.
Discover more about C&T's ACO-6000-CML Series >>
ACO-6000-CML-1E with 16 M12/RJ45 PoE
Railway deployment utilizes numerous IoT devices and sensors for a safe operation. The addition of eight more PoE ports, totaling 16x PoE, delivers greater configurability for IoT applications such as NVR for rolling stock and railway surveillance. Choose from a range of modules that best suits the needs to operate accordingly: 16x RJ45 GbE/PoE, 16x USB 3.2 Gen 1, or 16x M12 GbE/PoE. Additionally, the introduction of a PCIe 3.0 x16 slot allows for add-in performance acceleration. Imagery capture cards, M.2 VPUs, or M.2 TPUs can supercharge intelligence and effectiveness in railway deployments.
Key Features:
- 16x I/O expansion slots
- PCIe 3.0 x16 slot
Learn more about our latest In-Vehicle computer >>
EN50155 Fanless Computers Applications
- Safety and Security Surveillance
- Vehicle Telematics Data
- Geolocation Tracking
- Railway and Station Communication
- Smart Ticketing
- Rail Freight Operation Management
EN50155 Fanless Computers Deployments
Rapid Transit / Heavy Rail
- Metropolitan (Metro)
- Subways
- U-Bahn
Light Rail
- Commuter
- Inter-City / Interurban
- S-Bahn
High-speed Rail
- Passenger High-speed
- Freight High-speed
