New cooling tech tested to reduce railway signal failures in heatwaves

"The railway equipment is housed in the small grey boxes you will often see along the railway tracks, usually containing local switching relays and signalling systems. The metal cabinets get hot, and inside are electronics that also emit heat, but the cabinets are too small to have air conditioning in them so on hot days, the temperature inside the cabinets can reach as much as 70 degrees."

"A new heat radiator has been developed by East Sussex based Flint Engineering that can be glued to the top of the cabinet and radiate the heat away, hence cooling the cabinet by more than 20 perecent, which is enough to stop the electronics inside from crashing. Using metal structures to radiate heat away is not new, but Flint Engineering has a patent-pending method that they say is far more effective than plain copper or aluminium radiators."

"The radiator, which is fitted to the roof of the cabinet using a thermal paste to transfer the heat, uses a number of metal sheets which contain a network of sealed channels. Inside, a phase change fluid undergoes a rapid cycle of evaporation and condensation when exposed to high temperatures. That process then radiates the heat away far quicker than a static sheet of metal could."

Railway signalling and switching electronics are housed in small metal cabinets alongside tracks that can reach around 70 degrees on hot days, causing electronic failures and train delays. East Sussex based Flint Engineering developed a radiator that attaches to cabinet roofs with thermal paste and cools cabinets by more than 20 percent, preventing electronics from crashing. The radiator uses multiple metal sheets with sealed channels and a phase change fluid that rapidly evaporates and condenses to transfer and radiate heat more effectively than static metal sheets. South Eastern Railway tested ten units along the Tonbridge to Hastings line and more IsoMat units are being prepared for wider deployment.

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