Railcars need a lot of energy to get started. This is an essential aspect of the life cycle assessment (LCA) of railcars in commuter and metro trains that make frequent stops. Their energy demand depends on the mass to be accelerated. Composite sandwich structures in the bottom, ceilings, side walls or bogies of railcars made with ROHACELL® structural core can reduce weight and increase thermal insulation at the same time.

However, the material saves more than just weight: The C20 FICAS® by Bombardier is clear proof that ROHACELL® sandwich structures in addition to saving weight increase the inside clearance of the cars, making more space for passengers.
_{FICAS = Fully Integrated Car-body Assembly System; FICAS is a registered trademark of Bombardier Transportation}

Increasingly, transportation companies are looking for an individual appearance of their fleet to set themselves apart from other service providers. In the front end, all benefits of the self-extinguishing ROHACELL® S can be used in structural cores:

• Thanks to easy machining and thermoforming, even the most complex 3D structures are simple to achieve.
• The homogeneity of the material allows for reliable calculations and simulations, which have been confirmed with practical crash tests (view SKZ Presentation).
• In the RTM procedure, ROHACELL® can be used at room temperature to consolidate the complete front end in a single (“one-shot”) work process, for example with CFRP.
• Compared to honeycomb cores, ROHACELL® and the in-mold process can save up to 60% of production costs.

The PMI-based, self-extinguishing structural foam ROHACELL® S can be processed with all available resin systems and offers favorable fire properties in addition to outstanding mechanical strength. As a consequence, ROHACELL® is found in a myriad of streetcars, commuter trains, speed trains, mountain railways, and MAGLEVs around the globe.