Aluminum honeycomb panel for rail vehicles

The urban rail vehicle manufacturing industry has fierce competition. Energy saving and emission reduction is the future development direction of the industry. Lightweight design is an inevitable trend. The application of high-strength and low-density materials has always been a hot spot for vehicle design and manufacturing exploration. Among them, the aluminum composite material board is a relatively new type of car body manufacturing material, and its sandwich structure is made of aluminum panels, core materials, and aluminum panels, which are crimped with structural adhesives.

The aluminum honeycomb panel for rail vehicles produced by Chalco Aluminum, after the top cover part adopts aluminum composite material plate, the weight is reduced from 1095kg to 965kg, the weight reduction rate reaches 12%, and the weight reduction effect is obvious. However, due to the relatively complex structure and the large area of surface aluminum sheet, conventional MIG welding cannot be implemented, and the assembly and sealing of the car body are generally completed by laser welding or riveting.

Aluminum honeycomb panels are "sandwich" structures consisting of upper skin, lower skin, heartwood and edge-banding profiles, formed by vacuum thermocompression bonding. Among them, according to the different positions of different parts of the car body, the surrounding edge sealing profiles can be adjusted accordingly, and the middle core material can also be designed with different thicknesses. The aluminum alloy car body structure using aluminum composite material plates is generally: a frame composed of car body aluminum profiles, bending parts, etc., and then riveted or laser welded with the aluminum composite material plate on which the composite material has been installed to form a car body. Among them, the structure of the aluminum composite material plate in the large part of the roof is shown in Figure 1. It has been verified that only the top cover is made of aluminum composite material, and the weight of the top cover is reduced from 1095kg to 965kg, and the weight reduction of the top cover reaches 12%, and the weight reduction effect is very obvious.

The application of aluminum honeycomb panel can effectively reduce the body weight of urban rail vehicles, and provide a new choice for aluminum alloy body lightweight materials. The welding-riveting-bonding process combines the manufacturing of the car body, which puts forward higher requirements for the assembly accuracy of the frame and the welding deformation control.

The painting operations such as sandblasting, primer and topcoat of the aluminum alloy car body should be completed before the installation of the aluminum composite material board. Excessive temperature can easily lead to the aging of the aluminum composite material board itself, sealant, etc., or even failure, shortening the life of the car body, etc.

The sealant between the aluminum composite plate and the frame can effectively ensure the waterproof performance of the riveted joint. Taking into account factors such as the life of the car body, imported rubber can be preferred.

The riveting process can meet the manufacturing requirements of the aluminum alloy car body of the aluminum composite material plate. For small batch production, manual operation can be used, such as large batch projects, automatic drilling and riveting production lines can effectively reduce the work intensity, improve production efficiency and ensure product quality.