The Anonymous Widower

Is This Organisation Behind The Aventra Manufacture?

In An Interesting Snippet From The Engineer, I said this about the manufacture of the Aventra trains in Derby.

Looking at what we know about assembly in Derby, which I reported on in How Long Will It Take Bombardier To Fulfil Their Aventra Orders?, I know or have surmised the following.

• Bombardier are aiming for a production rate of 25 carriage a month.
• The sides of the trains are one piece aluminium extrusions.
• Sub-assemblies designed with suppliers feature in the design.

In addition, there has been a complete rethinking of everything about the design, manufacture and operation of the train.

The aluminium extrusions that appear to make up the sides of the train are revolutionary, with inner and outer skins and strengthening ribs between, probably being extruded in one pass, giving the following advantages.

• High strength
• Light weight
• Thin train sides for greater interior width.
• Simple, fast, affordable manufacture.

What helps is that train sides and roofs are simple shapes with a constant cross-section. Cars have much more fancy shapes.

It got me thinking about where the technology to create these aluminium extrusion was developed.

Bombardier are a Canadian company based in Quebec and Canada is the third largest produce of aluminium.

So I did a quick Internet search for “aluminium extrusion research canada”!

I found this page entitled Aluminium Technology Centre on the National Research Council Canada web site. This is said.

NRC ATC provides technological solutions for its clients in the aluminium transformation sector by offering direct access to cutting-edge scientific infrastructure and expertise in assembly process development and aluminium forming. The main aluminium transformation technologies available include adhesive assembly, various welding techniques (laser welding, friction stir welding and robotic arc welding), semisolid casting, forming and extrusion, as well as techniques for evaluating mechanical resistance, environmental sustainability, and metallurgical and chemical characterization.

The large-scale laboratory, measuring nearly 1200 m², contains oversized equipment: two robotic welding cells connected to a 10-kW laser, a friction stir welding machine, a 1000-ton forming press, and a 650-ton injection molding press.

The Aluminium Technology Centre is based in Quebec.

Bombardier has recently designed the CSeries airliner, which is causing an immense row with the protectionists in the Badlands, the other side of the border.

But airliners have many complicated aluminium components, so is this Aluminium Technology Centre, a key part in driving the cost of the CSeries down?

It should be noted that extensive use is made of aluminium-lithium alloy is used in the CSeries, to save weight.

So have all of these advanced methods of using and forming aluminium been shared with Derby?

It would appear that they have!

Reading about the CSeries, it would appear that have been as radical about thinking about the design of this airliner, as Derby has been about the Aventra.

Conclusion

Could Belfast’s problem have been caused by the same technology that is giving strength to Derby?

September 28, 2017 - Posted by AnonW | Transport/Travel | Aventra, Bombardier, CSeries, Technology