Melcher pedigree

The RCM series has been developed by the same Swiss team that designed the now ubiquitous M, S, K, Q and P series products used extensively across Europe’s railways for applications as diverse as safety interlocks, train radios, lighting and even soap dispensers. The Melcher team has always been proud of the level of detail and design verification which goes into their products. Would you expect any less from a Swiss company? All Melcher products are designed to the following strict criteria:

• Compliance to EN50121-3-2:2016 and EN50155:2017 as standard
• Severe derating down to component levels
• Over stressing on input to output isolation tests
• HALT (highly accelerated life testing) as standard
• All circuits dip-varnished for high mechanical durability and humidity withstand
• Self-cooling, no derating over the specified temperature range.

Cost-effective solution

With the introduction of more electronics on the latest generation of trains, there was a need to develop a new product family which still maintained the benefits of a ‘Melcher’ solution, but with a price tag which suited the less safety critical applications. The brief for the development of the RCM was to develop a family with the same high reliability core, but with savings to be made in the case construction and also a reduced range of options.
The RCM series is now fully released with products available in 150, 300, 500 and 1,000 Watt solutions, with inputs to cover the most popular traction battery voltages. Melcher has incorporated many of the options available on the older products as standard features on the RCM series. These include, Output OK signals, hold up time and ORing fets for redundant operation.
The RCM power supplies also have the following features as standard:

• RoHS lead-free-solder product
• Closed simple housing for chassis mounting
• Extremely high efficiency and high-power density
• Convection cooled environment at temperatures from -40°C up to 85°C.
• Low inrush current
• Overtemperature, overvoltage, overcurrent, and overload protection
• Fire and smoke: compliant to EN 45545 and NFPA 130
• Five-year warranty.

New optional plug connector version

Traditionally RCM chassis mount DC DC converters are supplied with cage-clamp terminal, a long-established industry standard. An optional pluggable connector is now available which lowers the risk of reverse polarity connection and supports the integration of ready-made cable harnesses during the installation operation or maintenance.