Background

Europe’s railway industries require a step change in technologies and design for the next generation of rail vehicles in order to remain competitive globally. However, currently available structural composites do not meet Fire, Smoke & Toxicity requirements of the railway sector, and thus cannot be used for the manufacturing of carbodyshell parts.
 
Innovative materials and modular design for rolling stock are considered to become key to success in Europe’s railway industries. Composite materials with their unique properties, such as lightness or reparability have demonstrated a high potential for lighter, more energy- and cost-efficient structural components in relevant sectors such as aeronautic or automotive industries.

Objectives

The overall aim of the Mat4Rail project is to lay the foundation for:

• Reducing train weight by replacing metal parts with Fibre Reinforced Polymers (FRPs)
• Increasing capacity and passenger comfort via built-in modularity of train interior design

Mat4Rail is divided into two work streams:

Work Stream I: Materials aims to develop FRPs that meet all the railway environment requirements regarding Fire, Smoke and Toxicity, mechanical performance and cost effective manufacturing, to developed structural joints for FRPs, and to innovate the access door system.

Work Stream II: Interior Design addresses the challenges and shortcomings of current rolling stock in terms of modularity in use, to meet the changing passenger demand during the 30-40 years of an in-service operating life-cycle of a train.

Mat4Rail overview

Project Coordinator
Dr. Elena Jubete CIDETEC, ES

Project Duration
01/10/2017-30/09/2019

Project Budget
3.5 million euro

Funding Programme

This project has received funding from the Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 777595.