The railway industry has never been growing as much as it is now, so much so that forecasts state that by 2050 passengers will more than triple compared to 2015. A positive trend fueled by various factors, among which the growing environmental awareness and need to find sustainable solutions.
In fact, the train will have more and more importance in the future, so much so that its central role in mobility is already clear to everyone, especially due to its ability to be an environmentally friendly means of transport.
In fact, rail transport requires only 2% of global energy to function, placing itself as a central tool in global mobility and in the fight against the effects of climate change.
The railway industry not only brings benefits for the environment, but also for communities, responding to the growing need for connections between cities, and it is precisely for this reason that at Eurotherm we are investing a lot of energy to improve the combination of movement and speed. innovation .
The increase in demand, the capacity of railway hubs and the complexity of the system is putting the railway industry in front of new challenges. For this reason, SBB is tackling a long-term strategy capable of ensuring more flexible, frequent and rapid connections, also thanks to the speed of response of light and heavy rolling stock maintenance .
The SBB workshops in Bellinzona, responsible for the maintenance of the Swiss railway fleet, have thus recently invested in a new painting booth supplied by Eurotherm, focusing on an important technological modernization to guarantee the resistance of the railway components against corrosion and wear. In fact, trains are constantly exposed to atmospheric agents , temperature changes and humidity , which is why corrosion can cause serious structural damage.
If the train has always been synonymous with movement, speed and innovation, the new painting booth with innovative lateral suction system fully reflects the soul of the sector allowing
- Speed, the innovative lateral suction system allowed us to avoid excavations to install the floor system – which in a pre-existing factory is a complex operation and can lead to long production stops – reducing costs and simplifying maintenance that can take place at floor level. Furthermore, air is introduced into the cabin from the roof through a plenum, which is also accessible from the platforms, in order to facilitate maintenance operations in the cabin .
- Flexibility, the system allows you to paint any type of rolling stock, from carriages to smaller components . Furthermore, thanks to the advanced software developed from an Industry 4.0 perspective of the suction system, operators can set the parameters to manage both the temperature-controlled surface preparation phase and the application phase.
- Sustainability, the division of the cabin into 3 zones with 3 independent AHUs allows you to activate only 2 out of 3 air treatment devices – those of the area in which you are operating – allowing for considerable energy savings .
Innovation opens new avenues to the industrial sector
An ever-increasing number of people are choosing the train as a means of transport because it is considered more sustainable and convenient for covering long distances than the car or plane: a clear assumption that the number of travelers and the quantity of goods that these vehicles will transport will increase exponentially in the coming years and, with them, also the rolling stock that will allow its use.
Its maintenance will therefore play an increasingly strategic and resolving role in redevelopment and repainting problems. The innovative solutions we are studying at Eurotherm can facilitate these interventions, representing a now indispensable contribution to the railway sector .
In fact, Siccardi states that “our activity is fundamental not only to bring vehicles subjected to wearing conditions back to life, but also to guarantee them a long life. For this reason we must be able to work with the best plant and technological solutions what was done in Bellinzona represents an important turning point because also for their future investments the SBB can evaluate cabins with similar characteristics to the one built here. Its performance is such that we will also keep some parts of it in the new headquarters in Arbedo-Castione: in fact, we intend to transfer the external structure of the cabin there and adapt the machine equipment to the new spaces: in this way we will recover part of the investment ”.
In October we will inaugurate the construction site for the painting department of the SBB plant in Olten , where there will be a shot blasting booth and two painting booths very similar to this one in Bellinzona, but in which a floor extraction system will be installed. Finally, in Arbedo-Castione, there will be a booth for shot blasting, booths for the preparation of cases and components and two painting booths.
… and this is only the beginning!
