London's Underground is Calling for Composites

摘要

The more than 150-year-old London Underground is going green. Part of that transformation involves updating the materials used in its train doors, with a recent award-winning demonstration project showing that lightweight thermoplastics can replace heavy metal in doors. Passengers likely give doors little thought as they board or exit a train. But using thermoplastics could produce a host of benefits in the "rolling stock" - engines and cars that move on the railway. "Lightweighting the doors has a cascade effect on lightweighting all of the rolling stock," says Jeff Ive, engineering capability lead at the Bristol, U.K.-based National Composites Centre. The NCC is an independent center that works with companies and universities to develop new technologies for the design and manufacture of composite products.