New cable carrier enables use in a parking tower for electric vehicles

The new ‘parking towers’ from E-Parktower from Haltern in Germany make it possible to store (and charge) electric cars in any car park. Individually tailored cable carriers from Kabelschlepp Metool ensure the power and data supply to the parking towers that use a paternoster concept. The systems were developed jointly by both companies.

The special feature of the innovative parking garage is that the individual parking spaces are designed as gondolas and can travel up to 180° clockwise and anti-clockwise. This offers the advantage of storing up to 16 cars – on a footprint where normally only three cars would fit. The fact that the individual parking spaces are continuously in motion presents a challenge for the cable carriers. Nevertheless, permanent supply with power and data has to be ensured.

“We developed a cable carrier with two feed points,” explains Samuel Heinrich, application engineer at Kabelschlepp Metool. “Half of the cables enter into the cable carrier through each of these two feed points and then exit again at a transfer plate in the centre of the carrier.” From there, each individual gondola is supplied with power and data. Two drive wheels are required for traveling the cable carrier back from the end positions, which are attached to both sides of the cable carrier with a positive connection.

To implement this requirement, Kabelschlepp Metool developed a completely new cable carrier model – the TKV105. Cable carrier dimensions and chain link pitches that are precisely adapted to the application created a product that is tailored to the challenges of the application. The cable carrier can easily be built with the proven Kabelschlepp Metool 1mm increments so that no custom orders with long delivery times are required even when more cables need to be accommodated.

For the E-Parktower project, two separate cable carrier systems were joined to form a single primary carrier, which corresponds to a total length of around 20m. “The solution really accounts for all our requirements,” says Manual Huch, CEO at E-Parktower. “In addition, we received everything from a single source – from development and delivery to installation.” The TOTALTRAX complete system for E-Parktower included not only the cable carrier, but also the fully pre-assembled Traxline cables.