Dr Richard Horn, industrial market sector manager for Cytec Industrial Materials, gave a presentation on the benefits of using advanced lightweight composite materials for railway rolling stock, particularly rail interiors. Simon Howarth of Ipeco Composites discussed manufacturing procedures and focused on the application of Cytec’s composites for standbacks produced by Ipeco for Bombardier Transportation’s Class 379 Electrostar EMU passenger trains, which are currently being run on the Stansted Airport to London link. Bristol UK based Ipeco Composites manufactured 960 standbacks for Bombardier Transportation, UK using Cytec’s MTM82S-C phenolic prepreg, which meets the requirements of BS6853 Cat.1a, the standard governing the fire performance of rail rolling stock. Neil Bates from Creactive Design gave a vision of the future when he presented a lightweight, modular vehicle concept for the manufacture of composite railcars. Nigel Keen of the NCC said: “This was a really good event and we see this as the start of the NCC working within the rail industry.” To complete the presentation, delegates were given an opportunity to tour the NCC. Commenting in general, both Simon Howarth (Ipeco) and Neil Bates (Creactive Design) said it was an excellent event with good technical interactions and the NCC is a facility the rail industry will greatly value.
Image courtesy of Frank Richards www.cytec.com
