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AIMPLAS participates in European railway lightweighting initiative

The two-year MAT4RAIL project aims to reduce the weight of railways and increase vehicle capacity and comfort by replacing metallic structural components with composite materials.

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AIMPLAS (Valencia, Spain), the Plastics Technology Centre announced July 19 it is taking part in the European project MAT4RAIL, which aims to reduce the weight of railways by replacing metallic structural components with composite materials, in particular, fiber-reinforced polymers (FRPs) with certified mechanical and fire performance, as well as the increase of the vehicle’s capacity and the passenger comfort by means of the smart modular design of interior space.

The project will last for two years, involves more than 15 research institutes as well as large companies from seven European countries, and is coordinated by CIDETEC (San Sebastián, Spain). 

The project MAT4RAIL has received funds from the Shift2Rail Joint Undertaking (S2R JU), one of the public-private partnerships within the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program under grant agreement No 777595.

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