Fast charge stations
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Furrer+Frey and Opbrid About Furrer+Frey and Opbrid
History and Values
Milestones
The two companies work together to offer the Opbrid Busbaar ultra high power charging station for Heavy Duty vehicles.
Furrer+Frey Emil Furrer and Arnold Frey founded the electrical overhead line company in 1923 during the period of electrification of Switzerland’s railroads. The company has been making overhead contact line systems ever since and has grown significantly to meet ever increasing global demand. Furrer+Frey is a medium sized family-owned company with excellent financial stability, global distribution, and extraordinary experience with overhead conductive infrastructure for vehicles.
2007 Mr. Bedell recognizes the compelling concept of fast charging buses at route ends.
Opbrid SL Opbrid was founded by Roger Bedell in 2009 in Granada, Spain, with the sole aim of providing automatic conductive charging stations for electric and hybrid urban buses. Mr. Bedell saw the value in leveraging knowlege, components, and experience from the European electric rail industry. Opbrid’s partner Furrer+Frey (CH) has many years of experience providing high power transfer to trains and trams. Opbrid has adapted this technology to the nascent field of bus fast charging with the innovative Opbrid Busbaar Charging Station.
2010 Prototype Busbaar V1 built in Granada with Furrer+Frey.
Furrer+Frey AG (CH) 90 years experience in high power transfer to vehicles (trains, trams, trolleybuses), worldwide presence. Opbrid SL (ES) Focused solely on fast charge stations for heavy duty vehicles since 2009, providing IP, marketing, electronics and software.
2008 Research and travel: «Why isn’t anyone doing this?». 2009 Opbrid SL Founded. Mr. Bedell presents the paper, «A Practical, 70-90 % Electric Bus Without Overhead Wires», at EVS-24 in Stavanger, Norway.
2011 Arctic Whisper project success in Umeå, Sweden using the Busbaar V1. Hybricon wins Elmia Future Transport Award for this project. 2012 V2 Busbaar chosen for Volvo HyperBus Project. Partnership Agreement signed with Furrer+Frey. Hybricon begins airport passenger service in Umea with 300 kW Schaefer charger and Busbaar V1. 2013 May 28th, 3 Hyperbus Volvo Plug-in Hybrid buses go into passenger service in Gothenburg. Charging at 625 A demonstrated in Umea. 2014 Busbaar V3 Introduced at IAA show in Hanover. First V3 Busbaars go into service in Umea, Sweden. Opbrid receives ISO 9001/14001 certification.
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Busbaar | Trukbaar The Furrer+Frey/Opbrid Busbaar is an overhead automatic electric charging station for heavy duty buses and trucks. It has a low cost and low weight fixed in-line current collector on the vehicle and automatically lowering contacts on the curbside gantry.
With the Opbrid Busbaar fast charging station installed at a convenient location, an electric bus or truck can run all day on electricity, charging for just a few minutes each time it reaches the charger. Ultrafast charging during the day allows the use of smaller, lighter, less expensive batteries. This means less battery cost, less weight, and more room for passengers or cargo. Besides the long term benefits of less weight and more room, initial vehicle cost is lower because of the reduction in number of batteries required. The Busbaar roadside charger can be shared by more than 8-10 vehicles, making the cost per vehicle of the charging station very low, with excellent return on investment (ROI). Lower system cost, more payload, better ROI: these are all reasons the Opbrid Busbaar will be an important part of your next heavy duty vehicle project.
Features at a glance - Four contact fixed in-line current collector on roof for lowest cost, weight and maintenance. - Lowering curbside mechanism that can adjust to practically any height vehicle while raising to over 4.5 meters when not charging. - Compact overhead unit reduces visual impact and allows the use of a wide variety of mounting posts to blend in with existing street furniture.
Advantages over the Competition - Fits almost any heavy duty vehicle due to its small rooftop footprint. - Designed to provide a pathway to future extreme power transfer requirements in a standards-concious way. - Safety features that always ensure correct connection, even with vehicles and charging stations from different manufacturers and with differing power requirements. - Optional insulating cover for an additional layer of safety.
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Low Cost and Low Weight Fixed In-Line Current Collector on the Vehicle
Our in-line configuration provides additional advantages over other designs:
Low Weight, Cost and Maintenance on the Vehicle
The Opbrid Busbaar current collector on the bus or truck roof is arranged with four fixed in-line contacts along a single transverse bar.
- Fits easily on trucks or other vehicles with limited roof area. Make the most of your charging station investment by allowing other vehicles to use the station in off-hours. For example, silent electric refuse trucks that operate during the night, or electric delivery trucks that operate in early morning. The Busbaar V3 takes up a minimum amount of space on the roof, enabling many more types of trucks, mini-buses, street cleaners, etc. to use fast charging.
The Opbrid Busbaar has no moving parts on the vehicle which reduces cost and weight to the absolute minimum. For buses in particular, reducing the weight is a critical consideration, since lower weight translates directly into increased passenger capacity. Reducing vehicle cost also reduces the overall system cost, since in most cases there are many more buses or trucks than charging stations. Vehicle maintenance costs are also reduced substantially.
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Busbaar In-Line Vehicle Current Collector
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Trukbaar
- An optional insulating cover is available that reduces electrocution risk in case of an accidental overturn of the vehicle. This is of particular importance to emergency workers. Additionally, this cover prevents ice and snow buildup and is an alternative to heating elements. - Safety is by design, with the physical geometry ensuring that correct contact is always made, thereby avoiding any possibility of overheating, sparks or welding during high power charging. - Future Vision: The width of the current collector can be sized to match the charging needs of the vehicle, from thin collectors for low power charging, to wide collectors for very high power charging in the future. The Busbaar design even makes sure that any vehicle can charge correctly at any charger, regardless of the charge power required. [3]
Refuse Truck – Busbaar Current Collector can be mounted on the cab in place of the lighting bar
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Overhead Charging Curbside Station V3
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Opbrid Busbaar Overhead Charging Curbside Station The new Opbrid Busbaar curbside station has been redesigned to be less expensive, more versatile, and more atttractive than ever before. All of the moving parts are contained within the protective hood. This means that the Busbaar can be mounted on a wide variety of supports, allowing designers the freedom to visually blend the Busbaar into the city streetscape. The Busbaar can also be attached to already existing structures, such as bus terminals, bus shelters, and even inside of buildings. Speed of connection has also been improved. Faster connection means more time to charge. Standards-ready: The new Busbaar is designed for the future to handle even higher power requirements. We have designed the Busbaar so that any vehicle can charge at any charger, even if they have very different power ratings.
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Visualization of a truck charging with the Opbrid Trukbaar
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Photos of Busbaar prototype at Furrer+Frey workshop
How it works
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Busbaar safe de-energized mode, waiting for bus
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Bus arrives at charging station, communication begins
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Busbaar lowers to contact the current collector on the bus and charges for a few minutes
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Bus leaves, charging station goes back to safe de-energized state
Applications 1
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Applications [1, 2] Urban [3]
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Plug-in Hybrid Electric Buses
Fully Electric Buses
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Electric Delivery Trucks
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Electric Work Trucks
Reference Projects 1
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Reference Projects [1]
New Flyer Electric Bus Canada
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Volvo Plug-in Hybrid Bus Gothenburg, Sweden
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City Buses, Umea, North Sweden
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Umea Airport Bus Sweden
Long-term Testing
Furrer+Frey AG Overhead Contact Lines Thunstrasse 35 P.O.Box 182 CH-3000 Bern 6 Switzerland
Opbrid S.L. Calle Vista Blanca 1 18190 Cenes de la Vega Granada, Spain Phone +34 626 855 662
We retain all rights to this document and the objects illustrated in it. Its contents may not be used without our written consent. © 2014 Furrer+Frey AG / Opbrid
Swedish office: Göteborg, Sweden Phone +46 722 603 542
Phone +41 31 357 61 11 Fax +41 31 357 61 00
[email protected] www.opbrid.com
[email protected] www.furrerfrey.ch
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