by ATK
The Mitsubishi inverter system utilizes IGBT technology.
As info, GE has not used GTO's in production of freight locomotives for many years now. I don't recall exactly when production was cut over from GTO to IGBT, but I would hazard a guess that its easily been 6 years now. For passenger locomotives, the story is a little different. The last batch of P32ACDM locomotives built for Metro North in 2001 are equipped with GTO's. The reason for this was that there would have been far too great of an expense for GE to redesign the inverter system and packaging of the locomotive to accommodate the IGBT's. That, plus it would have meant that Metro North would have to stock additional parts. Too bad too, because the IGBT's are far more reliable than the GTO's.
As info, GE has not used GTO's in production of freight locomotives for many years now. I don't recall exactly when production was cut over from GTO to IGBT, but I would hazard a guess that its easily been 6 years now. For passenger locomotives, the story is a little different. The last batch of P32ACDM locomotives built for Metro North in 2001 are equipped with GTO's. The reason for this was that there would have been far too great of an expense for GE to redesign the inverter system and packaging of the locomotive to accommodate the IGBT's. That, plus it would have meant that Metro North would have to stock additional parts. Too bad too, because the IGBT's are far more reliable than the GTO's.