Chinese polymer material specialist Zhuzhou Times New Material Technology Co., Ltd (TMT) launched an innovative train tilting system using existing air suspension as the basis at InnoTrans in September.
TMT dates back to 1984 and became a listed company in 2002. Since 2011, through mergers and acquisitions and the integration of resources, TMT has achieved local production and became a well-known globalization company in Noise and Vibration Reduction. TMT has subsidiaries and offices in 10 countries around the world, including Germany, France, Slovakia, Mexico, Australia, Brazil and other countries, with a comprehensive internationalization index of over 40%.
Its products are in wide scale use across the UK rail industry, in particular rubber air suspension units and other components fitted to the Electrostar and Aventra EMUs fleets and on Bombardier built fleets for London Underground (Surface stock and Victoria Line) plus the earlier Alstom built Northern Line trains. Bombardier built Flexity trams in both Manchester and Blackpool also use TMT suspension components. In addition TMT supplies rubber and plastic anti-vibration components used in construction and wind energy projects. In the UK rubber track mounting pads produced by TMT are in use on the new London Elizabeth Line, London Underground as well as metro systems in Europe, Asia and Australia.
TMT’s new Smart Tilting system uses a rail vehicle's existing air supply system to inflate the air springs and raise the height on one side to tilt the vehicle so does not need an additional source of energy, with the existing anti-roll linkage between the air springs on each side of the bogie adaptively changing length during the process. This passive tilt system can operate without any additional auxiliary power source and without any feedback or monitoring system.
TMT says its research shows that the system will allow an increased train speed of 5-15% on curves with a tilt angle of between 1.5 and 3° [degrees]. TMT has developed the design and built prototype systems which have been tested in its research laboratories, which it says provide the concept according.