Sipark Multi-Storey Car Park Guidance System from Siemens Certified

he Sipark SSD multi-storey car park guidance system from Siemens Mobility has been certified to UL 2017 by the U.S. standardization organization Underwriters Laboratories Inc. (UL). Sipark is a guidance system with individual parking space detection. An ultrasonic sensor is mounted above each parking space and reliably detects whether the space is occupied or vacant. The operator is thus able to see at all times how many and which parking spaces are filled or available. For the car driver, the time spent looking for somewhere to park is drastically reduced. At the same time, utilization of the car park''s capacity is increased while fuel consumption and CO2 emissions are reduced. Now that it has been given the certification that is essential for the U.S. market, the system, which has already been installed in many other countries, can now be marketed in the U.S. as well. UL is an independent safety-testing organization. Signaling systems requirements are defined in specification UL 2017. From November 16, 2008, onwards, Siemens will be presenting the system at the "15th World Congress On ITS 2008" in New York.

Sipark facilitates car park administration and optimizes capacity utilization. As soon as a vehicle enters the multi-storey car park, the guidance system reliably takes the driver to the nearest free parking space, taking the shortest route to get there. For this purpose, dynamic LED display panels are installed in the multi-storey car park. They are connected to a management system by means of a Simatic S7-based control unit from Siemens. In addition to individual parking space monitoring, the system also counts zones and alleys. This enables it to take into account of those vehicles that are still on their way to a parking space. As a result, it avoids guiding too many drivers into a sector in which only a few spaces were vacant when the cars originally entered the car park. In order to help drivers decide on the way to the terminals, the current state of occupancy of the multi-storey car parks can be displayed on electronic indicator panels set up in the approaches.
The combined guidance and parking space management system for multi-storey car parks and underground car parks has a modular structure and uses standardized components that have proven their worth in industrial applications. This ensures that the system can be expanded flexibly. Sipark has been installed in Shanghai, Singapore, Abu Dhabi, among other places, and in many European countries as well. The largest installation is at Munich''s International Airport where 16,000 parking spaces are monitored.

Industry Sector

The Industry Sector (Erlangen, Germany) of Siemens AG is the worldwide leading supplier of production, transportation and building technologies. With integrated hardware and software technologies as well as comprehensive Industry-specific solutions, Siemens increases the productivity and efficiency of its customers in the fields of industry and infrastructure. The Sector consists of six divisions: Building Technologies, Industry Automation, Industry Solutions, Mobility, Drive Technologies and Osram.
With around 209,000 employees worldwide Siemens Industry achieved in fiscal 2007 total sales of approximately EUR 40 billion (pro forma, unconsolidated).

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Mobility Division

The Mobility Division (Erlangen, Germany) is the internationally leading provider of transportation and logistics solutions. With its "Complete mobility" approach, the Division is focused on networking the various modes of transportation in order to ensure the efficient transport of people and goods. Complete mobility combines the company''s competence in operations control systems for railways and traffic control systems for roadways together with solutions for airport logistics, postal automation, traction power supplies and rolling stock for mass transit, regional and mainline services, as well as forward-looking service concepts.

www.siemens.com/mobility