Rail

More than 30 years ago Hexcel brought honeycomb technology to the rail industry introducing light yet exceptionally stiff solutions for floors, doors and ceilings as well as safety devices such as energy absorbers.

These early composite components were fitted into French, Italian, British and Austrian urban trains, as well as the metro systems of London, Lille and Hong Kong.

After supporting the production of interiors with phenolic prepregs Hexcel pioneered the development of train structures such as drivers cabs built with custom-designed epoxy prepregs adapted to large component manufacturing.

More recently Hexcel‘s carbon fiber reinforced prepregs (CFRP) have been supporting the rail industry in its challenge to achieve significant weight reductions in trains, making it possible for projects like AGV to attain higher speeds while consuming less power.