How to make an aluminum train

Industrial aluminum: the best partner of high-speed railway carriage              

The high-speed running of the train is a systematic project, which contains many technical conditions and methods. The lightweight of the railway train is an important way to realize the high-speed and heavy load of the train, that is, under the same other conditions, the lighter the weight of the train, the faster the speed. Aluminum profile is undoubtedly the best lightweight material. As early as the 1950s, some more developed countries in the world began to use aluminum profile to manufacture railway vehicles, including the United States, Canada, Japan, Russia, Germany and France. From the analysis of material characteristics and comparing the density and strength of aluminum alloy and steel, we know that aluminum alloy is the best partner of high-speed railway carriage. The density of aluminum alloy is about one third of that of steel, so if the volume is the same, the weight of aluminum alloy is one third of that of steel.

aluminum alloy for train

Taking high-speed railway as an example, due to the characteristics of materials and the modernization of welding methods, high-speed trains with a speed of more than 250 kilometers per hour must use aluminum alloy materials, and all train carriages with a speed of more than 350 kilometers use aluminum profiles except the chassis. The aluminum alloy used in a high-speed railway carriage is about 10 tons, so the weight of the whole carriage is more than half that of all steel. Aluminum alloy is widely used in high-speed railway carriages, which can effectively reduce the weight of the train and produce greater traction, so as to improve the speed, save energy and reduce emissions, and achieve multiple goals with one stone. In terms of strength, the strength of pure aluminum is very low, but the alloy formed by adding certain elements has high strength, and its "specific strength" (the ratio of strength to specific gravity)

It is better than many alloy steels and becomes an ideal structural material. The tensile strength of high-strength aluminum alloy is greater than 480 MPa, which can fully meet the strength standard of high-speed railway train carriage. At the same time, aluminum alloy has good plasticity and can be processed into various profiles. It has excellent conductivity, thermal conductivity and corrosion resistance. It is widely used in industry.

There are many kinds of aluminum alloys, among which 6000 series aluminum alloys are mostly used in high-speed railway cars. Its alloy is magnesium and silicon, which is an aluminum magnesium silicon alloy. Due to its light weight, excellent molding, high strength, corrosion resistance, long service life, renewable, less pollution and low maintenance cost, industrial aluminum profile stands out among many materials and has become the favorite of high-speed railway. The large-scale use of aluminum alloy materials in the carriage has greatly reduced the weight of high-speed railway trains and made an important contribution to the high-speed running of trains.

The demand for high-end industrial aluminum in the era of high-speed rail has soared

Due to the large-scale development of high-speed railway in China in recent years, there is a great demand for aluminum materials for high-speed railway carriages. However, the production of aluminum profile of rail transit car body has high technical requirements. Although this technology has been applied internationally for more than 30 years, the process is complex and the production process control is difficult. Only four or five countries in the world can produce it. 4、 Five years ago, China's rail transit car body aluminum profiles almost all rely on imports. The price of imported car body aluminum profiles per ton reached more than 130000 yuan, almost 10 times the price of aluminum ingots. Through the efforts of Chinese enterprises, China has basically realized localization in aluminum materials for high-speed rail and rail transit, and got rid of its dependence on imports.

The huge potential demand has stimulated aluminum profile processing and manufacturing enterprises, whether large state-owned enterprises or private enterprises, to embark on the production line of high-end industrial aluminum products in an attempt to take a share in this round of development tide of high-speed rail and rail transit. However, a noteworthy phenomenon is that although aluminum materials for high-speed railway and rail vehicles are basically made in China, the production equipment of these manufacturers are basically foreign brands. The production equipment of industrial aluminum profiles mainly includes extrusion lines and auxiliary lines. At present, the extruders mainly include Simak in Germany and Yubu in Japan, and the auxiliary lines mainly include kometo in Italy and Grank in the United States. Overall, the mainstream industrial aluminum production line is still a foreign brand. Only in this way can we ensure that the produced aluminum alloy materials have more reliable quality. Therefore, in order to truly realize the localization of China's industrial aluminum profiles, we need to strengthen technological breakthroughs in production equipment and complete the localization of production lines.