The high requirements in the railway industry have been in the past important barriers to the development and adoption of composite use in this market. A bogie is a typical application in rolling stock where the use of carbon composite could reduce the weight, lower the CO_2 emissions and add strength to the frame. It would then lead to reduced track damage, maintenance and energy consumption. Trials have been made in the past to build lighter composite bogies that would fully comply with these strict requirements but these attempts failed through the use of inappropriate materials and process technology or by not fully addressing specific railway technical requirements A consortium, led by ELG with the financial support of RSSB, has been working on the design of a composite bogie frame combining the use of low cost recycled carbon fibre and low cost manufacturing techniques. Small scale static and dynamic testing as well as FEA have been used to validate the new proposed design prior to full scale manufacturing and testing. The materials successfully passed the most recent fire testing requirements for railway applications. The final composite bogie is fully compliant with the railway standards. This work opens the door for promising further applications of composites in the railway industry and emphasizes their commercial viability in this industry.
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