Innovation

At POMA, innovation involves coming up with products of the future using sustainable designs that are environmentally friendly.

Almost 80% of the materials used are recyclable and the infrastructure can be easily reconfigured and disassembled. POMA is enhancing its position on the sustainable mobility market by using the skills gained in its various business areas and rolling them out for all customers.

This, in association with a robust eco-design approach, ensures that the carbon footprint of the ropeway transport solution remains very low.

DirectDrive® is the POMA technology used throughout the world, which, instead of a conventional drive train (gear motor), enables direct driving of the drive sheave without the need for an intermediate gearbox. DirectDrive® has three advantages that are part of a comprehensive eco-friendly approach: a significant decrease in energy consumption, no oil consumption and a substantial reduction in noise pollution.

Recently, the POMA R&D department developed the DirectDrive® offer, for an even quieter motor. Work on motor ventilation resulted in decreasing the noise level by 15 decibels. Energy consumption was also reduced by 8%, additionally providing the possibility to recover thermal units to supply a third-party space. With no hydrocarbons, oil or lubricant, this technology is a real advantage, both making us green and ensuring user well-being.

In five years, DirectDrive® has gone from 30 to 190 installations using this technology.

Ropeway transport systems have low electrical power consumption compared to other modes of public transport and are also able to generate this power. It is in fact possible to store energy when descending carriers transport more passengers than ascending carriers, then to reinsert the power back into the circuit when the opposite is true, or to auto-consume it directly by supplying connected or nearby electrical equipment.

Technical solutions, some of which have been subject to patents, have also been developed to reduce the power consumption of ropeway transport systems insofar as possible, for example via a specific positioning of the towers and optimised management of carrier spacing.

Just like the motors, rope entry into stations and on towers is increasingly silent. By relying on the best product experts internally and at rope manufacturers, POMA has been able to industrialise new “silent” ropes.

These ropes have plastic fins to fill the gaps between the strands, to move towards a perfectly cylindrical shape, thus limiting vibrations upon contact with sheaves and rollers. This solution also reduces wear and tear of tower and station components, therefore increasing their service life.

POMA’s use of this technology therefore helps reduce noise and maintenance costs.

From the French Alps to Latin America, this innovation appeals to our customers. In Medellín, silent ropes have been installed, firstly on line H in 2016, then in 2019 on the line. Our customers, who were the first to take interest in this innovation, have mixed tourist/urban installations such as the gondola lift called the ALPE EXPRESS, a dedicated transport corridor installed in Alpe d’Huez in 2018, or the gondola lift from Le Praz to Courchevel installed in 2019.

Complementary sources of energy may be built into the cabins to supply some of their options, and now on the roofs of stations – solar power has become one of POMA’s industrial processes.

This principle meets the needs of operator-customers who are committed to producing green energy, such as the Serre-Chevalier resort for example, which has very good sun cover and is a forerunner in energy transition.

Since the law changed, enabling the use of current produced on site, wind power is also being studied by ski resorts as a green energy solution. POMA, convinced that this approach enhances virtuous action, is currently conducting tests to adapt capacities so they are as in line as possible with local consumption needs, deeming that use by all mountain stakeholders is possible.

More broadly, all POMA ropeway transport systems, regardless of use (leisure or commuting), can benefit from technological advances in integrating alternative energy sources.

The energy efficiency of an installation may be impacted by various factors: system configuration (position of towers and carriers), friction, shape and part design (e.g. carrier aerodynamics), motor technologies, station drive systems and the choice of ropes, and so on.

Operating conditions are also important. Depending on the day of the year, the time of day and level of occupancy, more virtuous driving methods can be implemented. Artificial intelligence and big data are used to analyse a large amount of information on various systems and therefore help find the best configurations for new systems and the best operating methods for existing systems.
Although solutions already exist, POMA engineers continue to work on optimising products and calculations using this valuable data based on feedback, especially when POMA operates and maintains the systems.

One of the main challenges in POMA’s line of business is to reduce friction for improved noise comfort, lower energy consumption and a longer service life. Thanks to its experience in cities, where ropeways are operated up to six times more than in a winter sports resort (7,000 operating hours a year compared to 1,200 hours), POMA is innovating in the effective service life of parts.

As such, and closely linked to maintenance gains for operators, POMA innovates every year by developing components that are increasingly effective in limiting friction, which extends system capacity and makes ropeway transport one of the quietest modes of transport.

The cutting-edge technology used and implemented by POMA helps manage the energy consumption of a ropeway. It has been possible for several years to install secure monitoring systems on existing or new ropeways to collect data, sometimes in real time, so as to find the best operating methods to reduce energy consumption and adapt driving.

The “ECO CONDUITE” tool developed by POMA demonstrates this: using passenger flow analysis amongst other parameters, operators can choose amongst other things to adapt carrier speed, reducing it in off-peak times, for example.

The new SmartBOARD design enables integration below the bay window of the operators’ room, to easily view the areas to be monitored whilst optimising available space. The control system is simplified, as is traffic on the information screen. The two operating touch-screens pivot 180° and so can even be used from outside. The first screen, dedicated to ropeway operation, accommodates the driver’s station interface, the operating modes, all parameter statuses and the component variables of the ropeway (by location or function). Amongst other things, it offers access to pre-recorded tests from routine checks, the ZenIS load simulator and the EcoDRIVE mode.

The second screen is dedicated to the functions for operating and maintenance aids. In particular, by keeping data fully secure, it enables the use of advanced features from the COPILOT and HyperView software or the TimeLINE mode.

For its customers in France and abroad, POMA innovates by setting up operation and maintenance aid services to guarantee the safety and availability of their systems every day of the year. U
sing experience gained over decades of operations, when requested by the customer, POMA recruits, trains and provides a team fully dedicated to system maintenance.

To satisfy increasing demand, POMA has created a new service offering based on maintenance engineering. Maintenance monitoring analysis is used to accurately design the best maintenance policy for the systems: preventive maintenance, condition-based maintenance with vibratory analysis systems, the drafting of maintenance plans to suit the profile of the systems and data to provide information to the Computerised Maintenance Management System (CMMS) software.

Although various monitoring systems are already available, in the long term, on-board intelligence for the systems will enable them to be monitored throughout their service life. In addition to enhanced product expertise, feedback paves the way for predictive maintenance for each ropeway, using data on part wear and tear and use. Planning for and preventing failures is a major challenge for operators, and providing the possibility to limit expenditure on heavy maintenance is a strong financial argument.

An engineering and manufacturing company since 1936, POMA has extended its scope of expertise for its ropeway transport customers by also becoming a service provider, to support customers in ropeway transport system operations and maintenance. The Group uses French digital experts in particular.

POMA has developed two digital tools specifically for ropeway transport system operators: UPILOT® and COPILOT. These fully meet all operator, maintenance team and future ropeway driver expectations.

POMA is innovative and is enhancing its capacity to support ropeway transport system operators with two tools that are now vital in the transfer of skills and technical support for customers, to operate their systems safely and guarantee availability.