The EPTA industry report, entitled ‘Opportunities for pultruded composites in the rail market’, looks at what could drive the adoption of composite materials in the rail sector and the growing number of applications for pultruded components. According to the association, using pultruded components could improve sustainability, lower energy costs, speed up installation, and allow for new design concepts and multi-functional components.
As international policies continue to push to mitigate CO2 emissions from global transport activity, demand for lightweight materials such as composites will increase. Increased demand for lightweight, high performance, fire retardant materials for train interiors will favour pultruded components. Composite materials can help the rail industry achieve valuable sustainability, performance and cost benefits. Lightweight, high performing and durable composites offer energy efficient solutions with lower environmental impact and reduced through-life costs for asset owners. Versatile pultruded composites enable the cost effective production of new design concepts forvehicle interior and exterior parts as well as a vast range of infrastructure applications.
Lightweight, high performance and corrosion resistant composite materials can offer costeffective, versatile alternatives to traditional construction materials, without compromising safety, providing benefits for the train operator, rolling stock and infrastructure owners, and ultimately the passenger. In all segments of the rail market – from high speed national and international services through to urban and freight networks, and new concepts such as solarpowered trains – rolling stock and infrastructure solutions based on composite materials can help to provide:
• Sustainability improvements: reduced carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per passenger km;
• Operational benefits: lower energy costs, faster acceleration, increased payload;
• Reduced lifecycle costs: fast installation, lower maintenance, reduced renewal frequency;
• Enhanced functionality: new design concepts, multi-functional components, customised solutions, smart structures.
The full report can be downloaded here: https://pultruders.org/pdf_news/1_EPTA%20rail%20industry%20briefing_September%202018.pdf
