Tata Steel's Composites division started working in this direction after it bagged a ₹145 crore bulk order for seating systems of the Vande Bharat express that includes the supply of complete seating systems for 22 train sets, with 16 coaches in each train set.
Debashish Bhattacharjee, Vice President, Technology & New Materials Business, Tata Steel, told PTI, "These are specially designed seats, which can rotate 180 degrees and have aircraft-style passenger amenities. This is ‘first-in-India’ kind of a supply, which will be executed over 12 months starting September 2022."
Bhattacharjee, while speaking of Fibre Reinforced Polymer (FRP), the material that will be used in the seats said, "Composites industry in India is dominated by institutional businesses and is largely dependent on infrastructure, industrial and railway sectors. One of the key initiatives of the composites business was to convert to Fibre Reinforced Polymer (FRP) applications where steel is currently being used. Railways has been a promising customer for the FRP Composites business of Tata Steel."
The FRP used in the seats will have higher corrosion resistance and lower maintenance cost. Moreover, it will be conforming to the European standard of fire-retardant property and will offer improved safety and comfort to passengers.
Vande Bharat Express, also known as Train 18, is the second fastest train in India, which operates at a speed of 130 km/hr.
Bhattacharjee said Tata Steel is setting up a greenfield facility at Khopoli, Maharashtra, in collaboration with a technology partner from the Netherlands.
"The facility will manufacture aluminium honeycomb cored sandwich panels, which will be used mainly for interiors of rail and metro coaches. Key customers for the unit will be global metro and rail coach OEMs and also Indian Railways," he noted.
Tata's New Material Business
Tata's New Materials Business (NMB) was set up with the vision to explore opportunities in materials beyond steel. The business has three material verticals – Composites, Graphene, and Medical Materials and Devices. FY2021-22 saw the completion of NMB’s fourth year of operations.
Tata Steel's composites business focuses on three market segments: industrial, infrastructure and railways.
For railways, the composites business of NMB has been leveraging Tata Group synergies by offering integrated solutions jointly with TM Automotive Seating Systems and Tata Autocomp Systems.
