in six hours solar-powered UK RAIL contractor Birse Rail were used for secondary bonding recently installed a composite railway footbridge in just six hours at Bradkirk, Blackpool, UK, operations.
Although this was a one-o
aircraft unveiled project, the tools were manufac- thereby minimising disruption tured from composite materials to rail services. to allow further bridges of At 6 tonnes the composite bridge varying spans to be manufac- is signicantly lighter than the tured in the future. AMS and metallic structure (20 tonnes) that Gurit are now working together it replaces. The reduction in to oer a modular bridge weight was a signicant factor in concept that will enable the speed of installation. composite bridges to be supplied at a lower rst cost The new bridge is designed to than equivalent steel bridges. last for over 60 years and during this time maintenance should be SPRINT materials comprise a layer The Solar Impulse HB-SIA prototype that makes extensive use of carbon bre/sandwich composites. restricted to the replacement of of bre reinforcement on either non-slip nishes and stair noses. side of a precast resin lm with a AT THE Dbendorf aireld near allowing the HB-SIA to y light tack lm on one face. Manufactured by UK company Zurich, Switzerland, the at night. Unlike conventional prepregs, AM Structures for Network Rail, prototype Solar Impulse HB-SIA with SPRINT the bres remain The aim of the Solar Impulse the owner of Britains rail aircraft was recently unveiled. dry and unimpregnated by the project, which was started in infrastructure, and engineered by This solar-powered craft is resin until the curing process 2003, is to produce an aircraft consultant WYG, the bridge believed to be the rst aircraft takes place following the applica- entirely powered by solar energy comprises of two 12 m spans that will be able to y both tion of a vacuum bag. Gurit that will take o and y both and two ights of steps. Both the during the day and night claims that the void content of a during the day and at night. spans and steps were produced without using fossil fuel or SPRINT laminate is comparable using Gurits SPRINT system over emitting any pollutants. The HB-SIA is the rst prototype with autoclaved prepreg (less a foam core. The SPRINT re of the Solar Impulse project. Its than 1%). The company states With its 63.4 m wingspan and retardant woven glass/epoxy skins mission is to demonstrate the that for large structures, such as take o weight of just 1600 kg, are approximately 2.5 mm thick feasibility of a complete bridges, autoclave processing the HB-SIA makes extensive use whereas the core varies from 40 day-night-day ight. After would be prohibitively expensive of carbon bre/honeycomb mm of 55 kg/m3 foam at the top ne-tuning on the ground, the if not impossible to undertake. sandwich composites for the of the parapets to 100 mm of aircraft should make its rst test fuselage in order to achieve the ights between now and the end 100 kg/m3 foam on the walkway. Gurit; www.gurit.com required level of strength, rigidity of 2009. To provide a paint-free nish a AM Structures; www.amstructures.co.uk and weight savings. Similar in polyester gel-coat and a vinyl size to that of a Boeing 747 400, The data gathered during the test ester tie coat were used. Gurits WYG; www.wyg.com the wings of the HB-SIA feature ights of the HB-SIA will be used Spabond 340LV and Ampreg 22 Birse Rail; www.birserail.co.uk 120 carbon bre ribs at 50 cm to develop and build a second centres that both create the aircraft, the HB-SIB, whose 2012 aerofoil shape and support the mission will be to circumnavigate upper and lower wing skins. the word in ve stages.
Chairman and initiator of the
The crafts four propellers are project is explorer/scientist driven by four electric motors Bertrand Piccard, who made the that are powered by nearly rst non-stop, round the world 12 000 mono-crystalline, silicon balloon ight. The project CEO cells embedded in the upper is engineer and ex-ghter pilot skin of the wing. During the Andr Borschberg. day, the silicon cells will also charge a series of lithium- Solar Impulse; Installing the composite bridge steps. (Picture courtesy of Birse Rail/AM Structures.) polymer batteries thereby www.solarimpulse.com