The development of the Digital Automatic Coupler is a joint activity of European Railway Undertakings, Infrastructure Managers and the Railway Industry. As already shown in the past, it is very helpful to exchange about ideas and issues at regular intervals on the asset itself, on the couplings, the locomotives and at the place of action, the workshop and the marshalling yard.
Therefore DB Cargo hosted again the DAC Industry Days and invited the FP5 Industry partners to its facilities in Mannheim and Ludwigshafen from 05-07/11/2024.

This year’s three-day agenda had three different focus topics:

• DAC installation tests (coupler head and draft gear) with couplers of all four suppliers Dellner, Knorr-Bremse, Voith and Wabtec. This was made possible through a strong collaboration with the DAC4EU project that provided a freight wagon and the DACFIT project which organized the installation tests and workshop teams.
• Today’s operation with screw couplers in shunting yards including all processes from the arrival of a train, splitting, hump shunting, video gates, coupling and train preparation. This insight into today’s labour-intensive processes and the long distances for the staff once again showed the benefits of digitalization and automation in rail freight transport.
• Full Digital Freight Train Operation of the future was shown with five freight wagons provided by the DAC4EU project. The emphasis was on automatic uncoupling with Push-Buttons on the wagon side and actuators in the couplers and the prevent coupling function that enables hump shunting with DACs.

These practical demonstrations were the starting point for further questions and discussions between the participants from operator and industry side.

"We have once again learnt a lot from each other in the joint exchange with the industry, regarding current and future operations and the installation of the DAC. The opportunity to clarify open points directly on the wagons and in the workshop together with the industry partners and, of course, to emphasize our DB Cargo requirements, was again well received. We will continue to build on this in the future and remain in close dialogue in order to advance important topics together with our industry partners."

(Andreas Haller, Lead Flagship Project System Engineers FP5-TRANS4M-R, DB Cargo)