Owens Corning and Stratiforme Industries Report Development of RTM Part for High-Speed French Train
March 24 2009 - 3:00AM
PR Newswire (US)
Process Allows Highly Filled Resin and High Glass Content in a
Series of Parts with Consistent Dimensions and Performance PARIS,
March 24 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- In the city that is home to the
world's fastest wheeled train, Owens Corning (NYSE:OC) and
Stratiforme Industries will jointly report the development of a
tough and lightweight composite door for one of the commercial
lines of that high-speed rail service. Vincent Marhem, research and
development engineer at Stratiforme Industries, and Gilles Rocher,
marketing manager for key processes at OCV(TM) Reinforcements, will
report the development of the application during the Rail and Road
Transportation Forum, 2:30 to 5 p.m. Weds., March 25, at the JEC
Composites Show in Paris, the world's largest exhibition for
composites materials. The application is a lateral cover or engine
compartment door made by the resin transfer molding (RTM-Light)
process at Stratiforme Industries, Bersee, France. Owens Corning, a
world leader in glass fiber reinforcements and building materials
systems, provided Uniconform(R) mat used as reinforcement in the
process developed by Stratiforme Industries. The new process was
developed to address very demanding needs in terms of stiffness,
impact resistance, dimensional stability and fire resistance. The
door had previously been made by hand lay-up. The driving forces
behind the conversion to RTM-Light were the reduction of volatile
organic compounds (VOCs) and styrene emissions from Stratiforme's
production facility, and the desire to have two smooth sides and
eliminate the scratch risk associated with train crews touching the
door's inside during maintenance operations. "RTM was clearly the
best choice for the part," said Stratiforme's Marhem. "The process
allows us to make the required series of parts with consistent
dimensions and performance, which are critical factors for this
application. We can impregnate the glass reinforcements with a
highly filled resin while keeping the glass content at a high
ratio, and we avoided 'over-designing' the part to make sure it
will meet the specifications for minimum thickness. We also doubled
our productivity per mold per day." Rocher said the lateral cover
is often subjected to high-impact forces from stones, birds or
other projectiles hitting the part when the train's speed exceeds
300 km/h. "The railway industry is growing in Europe in part as
people realize that environmental issues are critical and the
European Union set tougher CO2 reduction targets," said Rocher.
"The industry is also thinking about sustainability and
increasingly turning to composites as a weight- and energy-saving
opportunity with better value than traditional material systems."
Known locally as the TGV(R)(1) (train a grande vitesse, French for
"high-speed train"), France's high-speed rail service was developed
in 1981 and has since expanded to connect cities across France and
in adjacent countries. It set the record for the fastest wheeled
train, having reached 574.8 km/h (357 mph) on April 3, 2007. About
Stratiforme Industries Stratiforme Industries was founded in 1961
and thus has nearly 50 years of experience in the molding of
reinforced thermosets. Stratiforme Industries is a major company in
the railway Industry, delivering mainly driver's cabs, toilet
modules, interior fittings and external structural GRP parts for
trains, metros and tramways. R&D and Design are located in
Northern France, manufacturing in France, Poland and Morocco. For
more about Stratiforme Industries, visit
http://www.stratiforme.com/ About Owens Corning Owens Corning
(NYSE:OC) is a leading global producer of residential and
commercial building materials, glass fiber reinforcements and
engineered materials for composite systems. A Fortune 500 company
for 54 consecutive years, Owens Corning is committed to driving
sustainability through delivering solutions, transforming markets
and enhancing lives. Founded in 1938, Owens Corning is a
market-leading innovator of glass fiber technology with sales of $6
billion in 2008 and 17,000 employees in 26 countries on five
continents. Additional information is available at
http://www.owenscorning.com/. (1) TGV is a registered trademark of
SNCF, the French national rail operator DATASOURCE: Owens Corning
CONTACT: Kerry Desberg, +1-419-248-5939, , of Owens Corning Web
Site: http://www.owenscorning.com/
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