Recently, the world’s first six carbon fiber KM82 coal hopper cars, jointly developed by Railway Equipment Company, National Institute of Clean-And-Low-Carbon Energy, and CRRC Qiqihar Rolling Stock Co., Ltd. completed their preparation work in the Cangzhou branch and were ready for operation, marking a breakthrough in the manufacture and application of new materials in the railway mobile equipment.
The car adopted the carbon fiber composite materials for railway freight car’s main bearing structure for the first time, with a specific strength 3-5 times and a specific modulus 1.5-1.8 times more than those of aluminum alloy material respectively, while reducing the car body weight by 20%. Furthermore, the car integrated optimized Zhuan K6 bogies, integrated air brake device, high-strength heavy-haul coupler, self-unloading bottom door opening and closing mechanism and other new components, and it also took advantage of on-board intelligent monitoring system with cutting-edge information technologies, including Integrated Internet of Things, big data, and cloud computing.