Abstract

The railway industry seeks to increase the capacity of the railway system, providing flexibility to align capacity and demand, increasing availability, reliability and energy efficiency by reducing the life cycle cost (LCC), improving passenger comfort and increasing the attractiveness of rail transport.

One of the lines of action to tackle the aforementioned challenges is the introduction of new lighter bodies and/or running gear structures, as both of these are among the heaviest components of the train. The potential weight savings (approximately 30 % and 50 %, respectively), and the use of new materials and processes in structures will result in reduced energy consumption, lower inertias, reduced track wear, and increased capacity to carry higher payloads.

This article will present the development of a carbon fiber single axle running gear frame including design, calculation and testing, achieving a 50% reduction in weight while maintaining the performance of current steel structures.

This project is within the Shift2Rail initiative, it is part of PIVOT and PIVOT2 Project. It has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 program under grant agreements 777629 and 881807.