Aluminum is used to make everything from bicycles to spaceships. This metal enables people to travel at breakneck speeds, cross oceans, fly through the sky, and even leave Earth. Transport also consumes the most aluminum, accounting for 27% of total consumption. Rolling stock builders are finding lightweight designs and tailored manufacturing, applying for structural profiles and exterior or interior components. Aluminium carbody allows manufacturers to shave off a third of the weight compared to steel cars. In rapid transit and suburban rail systems where trains have to make a lot of stops, significant savings can be achieved as less energy is needed for acceleration and braking with aluminium cars. In addition, aluminium cars are easier to produce and contain significantly fewer parts. Meanwhile, aluminum in vehicles improves safety because it is both light and strong. Aluminum eliminates joints by allowing hollow extrusions (instead of a typical two-shell sheet design), which improves overall rigidity and safety. Because of its lower center of gravity and lower mass, aluminum improves road holding, absorbs energy during a crash, and shortens braking distances.
In long distance rail systems aluminium is widely used in high speed rail systems, which began to be introduced en masse in the 1980s. High speed trains can reach the speeds of 360 km/h and more. New high speed rail technologies promise speeds in excess of 600 km/h.
Aluminium alloy is one of the main materials used in the construction of car bodies, having:
+ Body sides (side walls)
+ Roof and floor panels
+ Cant rails, which connect the floor of the train to the side wall
At the moment the minimum wall thickness of aluminium extrusion for car body is nearly to 1.5mm, the max width is up to 700mm, and the maximum length of aluminium extrusion is up to 30mtrs.
