epsotech
Lightweight, Safe and Durable – Tailor-Made Polymer Sheets for the Railway Industry
This article first appeared in the Railway-News magazine, Issue 3 2022.
For more than 60 years, epsotech has been developing customised plastic solutions for a wide range of segments and markets including automotive, bus, rail, aerospace, marine and medical. Each year, the group supplies more than 2,500 customers worldwide, combining the strengths of six European production sites. With epsotech’s thermoplastic sheet solutions, the group offers its customers a significant advantage in terms of weight savings and thus actively supports CO2 reduction. In general, plastic sheets help conserve resources thanks to their long lives and multifaceted uses. epsotech is strictly committed to the reduction of plastic waste and the ideal of the circular economy.
With a high recycling rate, the group actively contributes to a more economical and sustainable environment. epsotech’s mission is to develop innovative products that help its customers reach their environmental goals. One of our overall targets is to generally substitute non-recyclable solutions in the market. For rail vehicles the group develops and produces high-quality plastic solutions in strict compliance with the relevant standards and requirements. Here, epsotech offers a range of products for modern passenger coaches made of polypropylene as well as polycarbonate-based materials with a significant cost advantage compared to conventional materials and processes.
The polypropylene-based material solutions are available as extruded sheets or an injection moulding compound. These products are halogen-free and also have exceptionally low heat release, smoke density and toxicity properties. Plus, they offer excellent chemical resistance, making them the perfect choice in seat and table tray applications where parts need very frequent cleaning. Sheets are compliant to EN 45545-2 R6 HL3 and compound for injection moulding up to R6 HL2, or to R21 HL3 on request.
