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The 12th International Innovation Exhibition – ARCA 2014 was organized by the Union of Croatian Innovators and held under the high auspices of prof. dr. sc. Ivo Josipović, President of the Republic of Croatia.
From 15 to 18 October 2014, more than 250 innovators from Croatia and 17 countries all over the world gathered at the Boćarski dom in Zagreb. Apart from about twenty companies, new solutions from almost all areas were presented by unions of innovators, a large number of individual innovators, and even by students.
KONČAR, general sponsor of the Exhibition, also presented its innovations, and also this year KONČAR’s innovations won a couple of prizes.
ARCA Grand Prix was awarded to the project team from the companies KONČAR – Electric Vehicles, KONČAR – Electrical Engineering Institute, KONČAR – Generators and Motors, KONČAR – Electronics and Informatics, and KONČAR – Metal Structures for the project „Low-Floor Diesel-Electric Multiple Unit“.
The low-floor diesel-electric multiple unit is a result of KONČAR’s own development. It is based on the technical solution of the low-floor electric train, whose prototypes are already running in the railway traffic. The experience gained during the development of locomotives, tramcars and electric trains, and application of its results were the best basis for the implementation of this project. Unified technical solutions used in both diesel-electric and electric multiple units considerably lower the maintenance costs for users who use both types of units.
The same innovation was awarded „World’s Best Invention“ by the economic delegation of the Islamic Republic of Iran – this year’s country partner of the ARCA Exhibition.
ARCA Golden Award was won by „Končar BIM – Bushing Insulation Monitor„ developed by KONČAR – Electrical Engineering Institute team led by Vedran Jerbić.
Končar Bushing Monitoring – BIM is a continuous online monitoring system that provides insight in bushing insulation state while transformer is online. Many recent studies have shown that bushing failure is one of the most common causes of transformer failure. Such failure can cause severe damage not only to bushing itself, but also to the transformer and other substation equipment, thus raising the need for a bushing diagnostic and monitoring system. With Končar BIM, faults developing inside the bushing can be detected online at a very early stage, so that proper action can be taken to save the substation equipment and personnel. Powerful digital signal processor enables precise measurement of bushing leakage current amplitude and phase angle and calculates bushing dissipation factor change and relative capacitance change using special algorithm.
Croatian-Iranian Economic Forum was held during the ARCA Exhibition, and a delegation led by Mr Ehtesham Hajipour Hajialilou, Head of the Islamic Council of the Iranian East Azerbaijan Province, Mr. Sadegh Najafi Khezerlou, Mayor of the Iranian City of Tabriz, and Mr. Mohsen Soltani Tehrani from the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the Republic of Croatia visited KONČAR – Electrical Engineering Institute and KONČAR – Electric Vehicles, and expressed the interest establishing business cooperation in the rail vehicles area.