Adhesives keep the rail industry on track
1 min read
According to a recent report from Lucintel, the rail industry for composites is forecast to grow at an average rate of 10.5% until at least 2015, with the industry's focus firmly fixed on all the benefits outlined above as well as better flame retardancy, smoke and toxicity performance.
The land-transport sector as a whole accounts for about 25% of the European composites market. Composites provide lightweight solutions for rail vehicles compared with traditional metal counterparts. Lower overall weight translates into less energy costs in vehicle operation– important criteria for all vehicles including recent high-speed railway projects.
The rail industry is where composites and adhesives continue to play an even greater role, providing a solution to demands for more advanced and improved developments that help to sustain long-term growth. Composite materials are used for making exterior and interior parts as well as infrastructure components in combination with adhesive bonding replacing soldering or fastening solutions in the delivery of long term performance and durability. Simply speaking, structural adhesives enable the most efficient use of substrates and increasingly you won't see one without the other.
Interior and exterior components made of composites include major items such as interior ceiling and side wall covers, corridor adapter frames, luggage bins or racks, driver's cabins, exterior panels, end cabs and more. With their high strength, impact resistance and outstanding combination of high lap shear and peel strength, epoxy adhesives are the type of adhesive most commonly used.
The three main types of structural adhesive from Huntsman all have a different chemistry with different structures and physical characteristics that make them suitable for targeted applications and specific processing requirements.
The methacrylate-based adhesives tend to be used in applications like bonding metal hinges to GRP interior panels, where their fast curing properties provide significant time saving advantages. By contrast, polyurethanes with their flexible properties are the material of choice for joining tough-to-bond engineering thermoplastics, rigid plastics and composites, finding application in frame bonding for example.
Araldite 2013 is an example of an epoxy adhesive that is increasingly being used to bond GRP train driver cabins because of its excellent adhesion to substrates, high durability in ambient weather conditions, fatigue resistance and toughness.
It also supports greater design freedom, providing a fast and efficient bonding solution for producing the more complex and ergonomic shape of composite driver cabins now seen on the new generation of high-speed trains.
