Recently, Beijing Yizhuang subway line comes into official operation. Compartments, panels, body frames and structures in all the 138 operating vehicles use stainless steel manufactured by Baosteel. This is the first time that domestic subway vehicle applies Baosteel stainless steel for the whole vehicle as well as the first trial in whole vehicle material localization by domestic subway.
In recent years, there is rapid development in urban railway transportation. Relevant data show that by 2015, China will build 79 new railway lines in 22 cities, with total length of 2259.84 km and total investment of more than 882 billion yuan. At present, most of the light railway trains in the south use aluminum, while those in the north use stainless steel.
With its corrosion resistance, attractive appearance, high temperature resistance, low cost, long life cycle and 100% recycling quality, stainless steel is the railway vehicle material of the first choice. Apart from that, vehicle body panels made of stainless steel do not need coating, which reduces the pollution of coating material on the urban environment and reduces the maintenance cost of vehicle external surface.
Previously, stainless steel adopted by domestic railway vehicle manufacturers was mainly from Korea, Japan and Germany, which poses the problem of expensive cost and long time delivery.
Special stainless steel used in railway vehicles is of high technological content and added value, and foreign enterprises have closely guarded the secret. Targeted towards multiple specifications, high-strength, production organization difficulty, low comprehensive finished product rate, after several years of trial and error, Baosteel successfully develops products which are comparable to imported materials, breaking the material technical barriers.
In recent years, Baosteel special stainless steel used in railway vehicles is adopted by urban railways in Xi'an, Hong Kong, Rio de Janeiro and Tehran successfully.
The 138 vehicles' body structures (23 six-vehicle units) in Beijing Yizhuang line all use standard lightweight stainless steel monocoque structure produced by Changchun Auto Co.,Ltd.. as the stainless steel material supplier, since 2008 when the subway project started, Baosteel has supplied approximately 1,500 tons of stainless steel, with 5 different strength and more than 20 different properties.
For exterior body panels in particular, customers made high manufacturing demand on surface gloss, color, shape. Stainless steel department explores and developes a set of production technical process from smelting to cold-rolling and the products are highly praised by customers. Customers believe that Baosteel special stainless steel products for railway vehicles fully meet the quality requirements and the indicators are in no way inferior to imported products.
