Enhance Passenger Safety and Comfort on Trains

Foam materials are often used for insulation in rail applications. They can be used to insulate against heat, cold, and noise, as well as protect against fire. Foam insulation, therefore, is an essential component in the rail industry as it helps to maintain a comfortable and safe environment for passengers and protects against the risk of damage to critical components.

For everyone who has been sitting on a train and experienced the rattling and sounds inside, it is obvious that noise and vibration have a significant impact on comfort for passengers. To maximise the travel experience and customer satisfaction, innovative foam and tape solutions are designed to offer excellent acoustic and vibration damping properties. They can be used to reduce noise and vibration levels in passenger compartments, which enhances passenger comfort and reduces fatigue.

Foam materials are also effective in reducing the impact of shocks and vibrations on critical components of the train, such as electronic systems, floating floor systems, and HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) systems, engines, and bogies.

As sealing and gasketing solutions, foam tapes can help to decouple structures and reduce noise transmission. These materials can be tailored in density and other material properties to maximise vibration absorption and damping. But they can do much more.  

Multifunctional materials like Saint-Gobain® Norseal® FS1000 are not only excellent acoustic barriers. This special foam material is also water- and airtight, which helps maintain comfortable climate and temperature conditions for passengers and seals out unwanted odours. It also helps with good indoor air conditions. What makes this material especially interesting for engineers in mass transportation is that this material is self-expandable and creates a fire-blocking char. In its natural state, FS1000 is soft, conformable, and easy to attach to complex surfaces.

We have seen that there are high-performance foam materials available that engineers can use to create safer, more comfortable environments in trains. But NVH (noise, vibration, and harshness) damping is by far not the only added value innovative foam materials offer.

Let’s have a closer look at how bio-based materials can help improve indoor air quality in the next section.

As the name suggests, mass transport is designed to carry many people at the same time. However, in areas where many people spend time, heating, ventilation, and air quality become important for health, performance, and well-being.

To optimise the performance of HVAC systems in trains, various materials are available. However, there is one that stands out as it offers superior performance with bio-based materials, which are becoming increasingly important for engineers today. 

What if there were a solution that is free from plasticisers and produced with polyol, largely based on bio-based materials?

Saint-Gobain Norseal AGP200 is that solution. It is a polyurethane foam that provides superior sealing performance against water, dust, wind, and noise, even under extreme environmental and temperature conditions. It offers extremely low fogging and VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) emissions, low odour, and flame resistance according to FMVSS 302, making it ideal for direct use in interior applications (Sulphur-Free formulations) of buildings, automotive or mass transportation applications where good air quality is essential.

Its outstanding water tightness and thermal insulation properties of λ=36mW/m.K can be achieved with only 30% compression due to the low force required to compress this soft material. It has good conformability, which allows for cost savings by using less material to fill the same gap. This enables superior sealing performance for a wide range of highly demanding gasketing applications in automotive, HVAC or construction.

But the most significant difference compared to traditional materials is that AGP200 was tested using ASTM D6866, the standard for quantifying bio-based content to measure the ratio of bio-based carbon in the foam. This standard focuses on carbon, and for AGP200, a radiocarbon (C14) report has been created to verify the “% Biobased Carbon”. According to tests conducted by an independent, ISO/IEC accredited third-party laboratory, Norseal AGP200 contains 61% (+/- 3% (absolute)) renewable carbon after ASTM D6866. AGP (Alkyd Grafted Polymer) is partially formulated with bio-based material.

For engineers aiming for superior performance and excellent air quality inside buildings, vehicles or mass transportation, these results can make all the difference in finding the ideal materials for HVAC and sealing applications. They can also capitalise on the use of bio-based materials due to environmental benefits, such as reducing dependence on fossil fuels and lowering carbon emissions. This helps to achieve sustainability goals and offers potential cost savings or regulatory advantages in certain industries.

Overall, the adoption of foam materials is a growing trend in the rail industry, as they offer a range of benefits for manufacturers, operators, and passengers alike. Their high-performance properties can help to improve passenger comfort and safety and provide significant advantages over mechanical fasteners in many rail applications. In addition, innovative tapes assist with the electrification in mass transportation, helping OEMs to achieve their carbon emissions targets whilst enhancing passenger comfort. Speak to your adhesive tape expert and set the course for the trains of the future.