HITACHI : Environmentally Friendly Railway-car Technology

	Volume 57 Number 1 March 2008
	Industrial Systems

AUTHORS

Katsutoshi Hirohata	Rolling Stock Systems Design Dept., Kasado Transportation Systems Product Div., Transportation Systems Div., Industrial Systems, Hitachi, Ltd.
Hirofumi Sakamoto	Rolling Stock Systems Design Dept., Kasado Transportation Systems Product Div., Transportation Systems Div., Industrial Systems, Hitachi, Ltd.
Hideo Kitabayashi	Rolling Stock Engineering Dept., Rolling Stock Systems Div., Transportation Systems Div., Industrial Systems, Hitachi, Ltd.
Akihiro Ishikawa	Rolling Stock Engineering Dept., Rolling Stock Systems Div., Transportation Systems Div., Industrial Systems, Hitachi, Ltd.

OVERVIEW

As regards railway vehicles, it is becoming important to respond to the growing concerns for the global environment while satisfying the needs to provide comfort and shorten travel times. Aiming at manufacturing train cars that take account of environmental concerns, Hitachi, Ltd. has developed technologies for the high-speed “Shinkansen” — starting with East Japan Railway Company's E954-type — that raise train speed while lowering noise pollution. Furthermore, as for commuter trains, beginning with the 10000 Series for the new Fukutoshin Line of Tokyo Metro Co., Ltd., we have further advanced “A-train” technology for “cleanly” manufacturing lightweight, but extremely rigid, carriage bodywork by utilizing large-scale molded materials and friction-stir welding, and improved carriage recycleability by unifying the various kinds of aluminum alloys conventionally used into one kind. At the same time, by avoiding use of plastic resin materials (such as PVC and fiber-reinforced plastics) as much as possible — in accordance with countermeasures against fire decreed by revised ministerial ordinances — we have strengthened countermeasures against fire and poisonous gas.

TO READ THIS ARTICLE

See PDF file for details(PDFformat, r2008_01_002.pdf, 438KB)

RELEVANT SITES

	Hitachi-Rail.com
	The Hitachi Hyoron (Japanese Only)

KEYWORDS

A-train, FSW, SHINKANSEN, Commuter trains

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