SMT involved in international research consortium

 

In collaboration with 13 other partners from a total of 7 European countries, SMT is working on rail vehicles of the future. With a balanced combination of universities, research institutions and industrial partners, the consortium is well positioned. The main goal of this 24-month project is to develop innovative and affordable solutions for the manufacture of car bodies, innovative composite doors and the development of a modular concept for the interior under consideration of lightweight construction strategies.

The project is called CARBODIN and is funded by the European rail research initiative Shift2Rail. The project will make a vital contribution to a new generation of lighter, more energy and cost efficient passenger trains.

  • Car Body Shells: efforts will focus on the development of smart, automated, modular and cost-efficient mould processes for composite car body shell manufacturing based on Out of Autoclave (OOA) processes. Besides, the development of structural health monitoring (SHM) systems for car body shell, multi-material and 3D printed parts and tools, will help to produce lightweight and high reliability parts.
  • Doors: the consortium will concentrate on the development of manufacturing tools for composites door leaves with the aim on cost reduction. Door leaves thermal insulation, and noise reduction, will be improved. Passenger train accessibility will also be studied.
  • Interiors: solutions will be developed to allow modular and aesthetic interior designs and layouts at low cost and in a short amount of time, to identify new human-machine interactions for the cabin of the future, and to integrate low volt circuits in composite panels.

These are the members of the consortium:

-FUNDACIÓ EURECAT (EURECAT), Spain

-Ethniko Kentro Erevnas Kai Technologikis Anaptyxis (CERTH), Greece

-Asociación de Investigación Metalúrgica del Noroeste (AIMEN), Spain

-Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen (RWTH), Germany

-Universita Degli Studi di Roma la Sapienza (DICEA), Italy

-Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France (UPHF), France

-EURNEX e.V. Germany

-The International Union of Railways (UIC), France

-Vyzkumny Ustav Zeleznicni, AS (VUZ), Czech Republic

-CG Rail GmbH, Germany

-Forster System-Montage-Technik GmbH (SMT), Germany

-MASATS S.A., Spain

-DES ART Sp. z o.o., Poland

-Composites Aragón S.L., Spain

This project has received funding from the Shift2Rail JU under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, under Grant Agreement 881814.

More information on the CARBODIN project website, Twitter and Linkedin.

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