Plastic parts used in European trains New fiber plastic is as strong as metal
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Spain-based AIMPLAS Plastics Technology Center recently announced its participation in the European MAT4RAIL project, which aims to reduce locomotive weight by replacing metal structural components with fiber-reinforced polymers (FRPs), while increasing vehicle capacity and improving passenger comfort through intelligent modular design of interior Spaces.
Starting in October 2017, the project has enabled the development of new epoxy resin formulations with improved flame retardancy for use in FRPs. The MAT4RAIL programme will run for two years and is coordinated by CIDETEC(Spain). With the implementation of the project, it is expected that the railway infrastructure will be improved in terms of cost, functionality, dependency and timeliness, increased capacity and energy efficiency, and reduced life cycle costs: Innovative materials and modular designs for railway rolling stock will be developed, and weight reduction of trains will be achieved by replacing metal parts with FRP with mechanical properties and fire resistance up to standard. In addition, the project has involved 15 institutes, smes, large companies and a university from seven European countries, and received funding from the Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking(S2R JU). S2R JU is one of the partners of the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.