transport logistic 2025: an automated wagon cover powered by the axle
With Schaeffler, Innovaction and Ermewa, we showed a freight wagon that opens its own roof — on a REALTRONIK battery charged by the axlebox generator.
A joint demonstrator in Munich
At transport logistic 2025 in Munich (2–5 June), Schaeffler presented a joint project with European partners at the Ermewa stand: a freight wagon with an electrically operated, folding tarpaulin roof.
Innovaction Technologies developed the roof system. The battery that drives it comes from REALTRONIK and is charged by a Schaeffler axlebox generator.
Energy without the locomotive
Freight wagons normally have no electrical supply of their own. The axlebox generator fills that gap: it sits in the axlebox housing, can be retrofitted to existing fleets and is available in a low-power version up to 50 W and a high-power version from 100 W.
In the demonstrator, the stored energy is enough for about 50 opening and closing cycles while the wagon stands still.
A step towards automated loading
Ermewa, which leases more than 50,000 freight wagons across Europe, plans to use the same power supply for sensors that detect how much load space is left in the wagon — an early step towards automated loading.