HAKAN: The story of the Czech brake king
HAKAN: Czech test equipment for brake testing of railway vehicles
The Czech company CRESSTO s.r.o. first
dipped its toes into the measurement of
rolling stock braking systems in the late
1990s. The harbinger was the Megan test
system, manufactured for MSV Studénka in
1998. What was still a mechanically opera-
ted system, controlled at the time by an
application running under MS DOS 6.22,
laid the foundations for the next-generati-
on fully automatic HaKan system. Interes-
tingly, the Megan system was sold to
Arad, Romania, where it continues to ser-
ve its purpose. Three years later, the first
Hakan tester was created on the basis of a
request from a customer coming from the
repair sector, specifically freight wagon
repairs. The question why it carries a Tur-
kish name is what comes to mind for al-
most anyone coming across the system. In
fact, the letters H and K are the initials of
the city where the first Hakan went. Hra-
dec Králové. The Czech phonetic transc-
ription of the letters, i.e. "Ha Ka", led to
what became Hakan. It was only several
years later, at the Innotrans fair in Berlin,
that Turkish colleagues took the name to
the next level. Indeed, Hakan means
"king" in Turkish.
Since then, a lot has happened in the de-
velopment. The system has become a con-
stant and often indispensable part of ma-
nufacturing and repairing various railway
vehicles for a number of manufacturers,
repair specialists, mobile workshops, and
owners, holders, or operators of rolling
stock in Europe. Today, nearly 140 sys-
tems ensure measurement objectivity and
accuracy for customers in Czechia, Slova-
kia, Poland, Germany, Hungary, Serbia,
Croatia, and England, for example. A wide
range of attachments, reductions, and jigs
is available. Precision, practicality, and
versatility are taken into account in the de-
velopment and production. HAKAN S is
housed in a lightweight yet durable all-alu-
minium case with all-rubber wheels. This
allows for great flexibility and mobility in
stationary and mobile service and repair
shops alike. The number of 10 pressure in-
puts is fully sufficient to measure the com-
plete braking of a vehicle with two inde-
pendent distributors and three brake
cylinders with load-dependent braking.
HAKAN S can be controlled by any PC,
laptop, tablet, or other mobile device run-
ning Win7, Win10, or Win11. Optionally,
the system can be controlled remotely via
a mobile phone or tablet browser. The
HAKAN system is open and user-configu-
rable and compatible with brake systems
from all the world's leading manufacturers
TT ++ TT
Technika a trh 5/2024
rail transport
ll
components
6
HAKAN
or the Story
of the Czech Brake King
Hakan is a universal test rig for testing rolling stock braking systems. It is independent
of the manufacturer and type of the braking system and of the regulation according
to which the test is conducted. Brakes can be tested on freight cars, passenger carriages,
and locomotives. A special functionality is the testing of brake components from
the Czech manufacturer DAKO, which can also be tested. However, a test bench
is required for these purposes.