• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Owens Corning and Stratiforme Industries Report Development of RTM Part for High-Speed French Train

Posted on: Tuesday, 24 March 2009, 02:00 CDT

Process Allows Highly Filled Resin and High Glass Content in a Series of Parts with Consistent Dimensions and Performance

PARIS, March 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- In the city that is home to the world's fastest wheeled train, Owens Corning (NYSE: OC) and Stratiforme Industries will jointly report the development of a tough and lightweight composite door for one of the commercial lines of that

high-speed rail service.

Vincent Marhem, research and development engineer at Stratiforme Industries, and Gilles Rocher, marketing manager for key processes at OCV(TM) Reinforcements, will report the development of the application during the Rail and Road Transportation Forum, 2:30 to 5 p.m. Weds., March 25, at the JEC Composites Show in Paris, the world's largest exhibition for composites materials.

The application is a lateral cover or engine compartment door made by the resin transfer molding (RTM-Light) process at Stratiforme Industries, Bersee, France. Owens Corning, a world leader in glass fiber reinforcements and building materials systems, provided Uniconform(R) mat used as reinforcement in the process developed by Stratiforme Industries.

The new process was developed to address very demanding needs in terms of stiffness, impact resistance, dimensional stability and fire resistance. The door had previously been made by hand lay-up. The driving forces behind the conversion to RTM-Light were the reduction of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and styrene emissions from Stratiforme's production facility, and the desire to have two smooth sides and eliminate the scratch risk associated with train crews touching the door's inside during maintenance operations.

"RTM was clearly the best choice for the part," said Stratiforme's Marhem. "The process allows us to make the required series of parts with consistent dimensions and performance, which are critical factors for this application. We can impregnate the glass reinforcements with a highly filled resin while keeping the glass content at a high ratio, and we avoided 'over-designing' the part to make sure it will meet the specifications for minimum thickness. We also doubled our productivity per mold per day."

Rocher said the lateral cover is often subjected to high-impact forces from stones, birds or other projectiles hitting the part when the train's speed exceeds 300 km/h.

"The railway industry is growing in Europe in part as people realize that environmental issues are critical and the European Union set tougher CO2 reduction targets," said Rocher. "The industry is also thinking about sustainability and increasingly turning to composites as a weight- and energy-saving opportunity with better value than traditional material systems."

Known locally as the TGV(R)(1) (train a grande vitesse, French for "high-speed train"), France's high-speed rail service was developed in 1981 and has since expanded to connect cities across France and in adjacent countries. It set the record for the fastest wheeled train, having reached 574.8 km/h (357 mph) on April 3, 2007.

About Stratiforme Industries

Stratiforme Industries was founded in 1961 and thus has nearly 50 years of experience in the molding of reinforced thermosets. Stratiforme Industries is a major company in the railway Industry, delivering mainly driver's cabs, toilet modules, interior fittings and external structural GRP parts for trains, metros and tramways. R&D and Design are located in Northern France, manufacturing in France, Poland and Morocco. For more about Stratiforme Industries, visit www.stratiforme.com

About Owens Corning

Owens Corning (NYSE: OC) is a leading global producer of residential and commercial building materials, glass fiber reinforcements and engineered materials for composite systems. A Fortune 500 company for 54 consecutive years, Owens Corning is committed to driving sustainability through delivering solutions, transforming markets and enhancing lives. Founded in 1938, Owens Corning is a market-leading innovator of glass fiber technology with sales of $6 billion in 2008 and 17,000 employees in 26 countries on five continents. Additional information is available at www.owenscorning.com.

(1) TGV is a registered trademark of SNCF, the French national rail operator

SOURCE Owens Corning

Source: PR Newswire

More News in this Category