The Application Of Aluminum Alloy In Railway Vehicles

As an important lightweight material, aluminum honeycomb panels are widely used in the aviation manufacturing industry, and have long been used in foreign railway vehicles. They are widely used, such as the French TGV series and the Italian ETR series high-speed trains. In China, aluminum honeycomb panels have only been used in recent years. Although they have achieved certain results, their application scope is still very limited. The understanding of the characteristics and application scope of honeycomb sandwich materials needs to be further strengthened and expanded. Aluminum honeycomb panel is a composite material formed by bonding aluminum honeycomb core material and surface material. In general, aluminum honeycomb panel has the following basic characteristics:

1. Light weight, high specific strength, especially high flexural rigidity, the flexural rigidity of aluminum honeycomb panels of the same quality is about 5 times that of aluminum alloys.
2. It has extremely high surface flatness and high temperature stability, easy to form and not easy to deform. Aluminum honeycomb panels can not only be made into flat panels, but also into hyperbolic and single-curved panels, which can be disassembled and assembled after being made into vehicle parts. Convenience.
3. Excellent corrosion resistance, insulation and environmental adaptability, which can adapt to various harsh operating environments of railway EMUs and passenger cars; Good decoration and fire resistance.
4. Unique resilience, can absorb vibration energy, and has good sound insulation and noise reduction effect.
5. The fire protection level is high, which meets the A-level requirements in the international intermodal fire protection standard UIC564-2-199l “Fire Protection and Fire Protection Regulations for Railway Passenger Cars or International Union Use of Similar Vehicles”.
6. After encountering a fire, the smoke density meets the high-level international railway fire protection standards, and has good self-extinguishing properties; the exothermic value is low, which can form a refractory layer, which can reduce the released smoke and toxic gases, and has excellent environmental performance. .
7. Excellent molding and manufacturing processability, which can meet the requirements of complex shapes and high stability requirements for internal parts of railway vehicles.

In foreign countries, the TGV series of France and the ETR series of high-speed trains in Italy have long used honeycomb sandwich structure composite materials to make interior wall panels and roof panels, and then many railway vehicle manufacturers in Europe have used aluminum honeycomb panels to manufacture railway vehicles. Parts, the application range covers the side wall panels, inner roof panels, partition panels, floors, door panels and luggage racks of interior and exterior doors in the interior structure.

Among them, Italy is relatively advanced in the application of aluminum honeycomb panels. Italy has long used aluminum honeycomb panels to manufacture structural parts such as luggage racks with complex shapes and inner wall panels with curved windows. In China, the earliest application of aluminum honeycomb panels was to manufacture the partition walls of 25A soft sleeper buses. Due to the lack of mastery of manufacturing technology at that time, the application effect was not very ideal. Therefore, it could not continue to be popularized and applied on the subsequent Type 25 passenger cars. At the end of the 20th century, due to the high requirements for the lightweight of vehicles during the development of EMUs, aluminum honeycomb panels were first used to manufacture partitions, flat roof panels and door panels on domestic EMU prototypes, and good results were achieved. Subsequently, aluminum honeycomb panels were applied in a large area.

At that time, aluminum-aluminum honeycomb panels were not only used to manufacture partitions, flat roof panels, under-vehicle equipment compartment floors and various door panels. The air-conditioning duct and air-conditioning unit shroud are also manufactured with aluminum honeycomb panels. Among them, the application effect of the wall, the flat roof, the air-conditioning duct and the air-conditioning unit shroud is the most significant, which greatly reduces the cost of related parts. The overall lightweight of the vehicle is realized, and the manufacturing precision and quality of the parts are improved, thereby improving the manufacturing quality of the whole vehicle. However, it is the CRH series EMU that really makes the breakthrough in the application of aluminum honeycomb panels. The breakthrough progress mentioned here is mainly reflected in two aspects:

1. The application of aluminum honeycomb panels on CRH series EMUs has produced inner wall panels with complex shapes, very high manufacturing tolerances and high appearance quality requirements, breaking through the fact that aluminum honeycomb panels can only be used to manufacture plane structures or can only be used in one direction. The design concept of bending parts makes its application range break through the application range of interior floors, partitions, various interior and exterior door panels and air ducts of air conditioning systems.
2. The use of aluminum honeycomb panels on the CRH series EMUs produces a luggage rack with complex shapes and high requirements for load-bearing and wear resistance, breaking through the tradition that aluminum honeycomb panels cannot be used to manufacture important stress-bearing components of vehicle interior structures The design concept has expanded its application range to a new field, and the domestic aluminum honeycomb panel application technology has entered a new stage.

With the continuous deepening of the localization process of CRH series EMUs in recent years, it has been possible to use aluminum honeycomb panel forming processing technology to manufacture parts with complex shapes, and has reached a high level in the field of aluminum honeycomb panel forming, manufacturing and application. However, in order to further improve the application level of aluminum honeycomb panels and improve the rationality, maturity and reliability of design and manufacture of components, the characteristics and applicability, application design methods, manufacturing process and specific manufacturing of aluminum honeycomb panels should also be studied.

Methods and means to further strengthen research, truly grasp the characteristics and application design methods of aluminum honeycomb panels, in order to further expand the application range of aluminum honeycomb panels, and promote the further lightweight of railway vehicles. With the continuous deepening of the localization process of CRH series EMUs in recent years, it has been possible to use aluminum honeycomb panel forming processing technology to manufacture parts with complex shapes, and has reached a high level in the field of aluminum honeycomb panel forming, manufacturing and application.

However, in order to further improve the application level of aluminum honeycomb panels and improve the rationality, maturity and reliability of design and manufacture of components, the characteristics and applicability, application design methods, manufacturing process and specific manufacturing of aluminum honeycomb panels should also be studied. Methods and means to further strengthen research, truly grasp the characteristics and application design methods of aluminum honeycomb panels, in order to further expand the application range of aluminum honeycomb panels, and promote the further lightweight of railway vehicles.