Wascosa extends safe tank car

THE SAFETY STANDARD

TANK CAR • WASCOSA HAS TAKEN ITS SAFE TANK CAR CONCEPT A STEP FURTHER WITH A NEW DESIGN DEVELOPED IN COLLABORATION WITH ANQORE TO HANDLE ACRYLONITRILE

WASCOSA, TOGETHER WITH its customer AnQore (formerly DSM Acrylonitrile) and Slovakian wagon builder Tatravagonka Poprad, has developed a new rail tank car optimised specifically for the transport of acrylonitrile. This new tank car, Wascosa says, sets new standards in terms of safety and design; 25 units have already been delivered and Wascosa aims to produce another 75 by the end of 2020.

The new tank car design builds on the Wascosa safe tank car® concept rolled out in 2010. It features a self-supporting tank construction as well as a new headshield, the PS02 Protection Shield, developed by EST Eisebahn-Systemtechnik, specially designed for this wagon. The PS02 shield protects the tank in the event of a collision with adjacent wagons or other vehicles or obstacles; it is located far forward of the tank, repelling danger as early as possible.

In addition, the new design offers significant weight savings, made possible by more efficient use of materials in its construction following calculations using the finite element method and verified in practical tests. Despite the additional safety features, this means that the wagon has a larger tank with a capacity of 93 m³.

Furthermore, the new wagon has derailment detectors, crash buffers with a particularly long deformation path, anti-climbing protection in accordance with the requirements of RID and, naturally, telematics units.

CULTURE OF COLLABORATION For Peter Balzer, CEO of Switzerland-based Wascosa, the new tank car is a clear demonstration of his company’s culture of innovation. “As a provider of freight wagon systems, we are committed to meeting the highest customer demands. Constant progress and the determination to provide the greatest possible safety for dangerous goods tank wagons are part of our DNA and are what continuously drive us to break new ground and to constantly introduce new innovations within the European freight wagon market,” he says.

“The new wagon from Wascosa shows that increased tank wagon safety does not have to be at the expense of the payload,” says Marián Moravcík, chief design engineer of Tatravagonka Poprad. “The self-supporting construction of the tank enables weight savings of at least 500 kg.”

The new tank car design has been in development for two years, as AnQore CEO Peter Boon says: “I am very proud that after many months of design, development and building we are now finally able to introduce 25 brand new rail tank cars (RTCs) into our fleet. We were planning to start using these RTCs sooner, but due to the impact of Covid-19 we had to wait a bit longer than planned.

“AnQore will start transporting acrylonitrile in RTCs that have been engineered and built to the highest safety standards to date. We made a conscious decision to go beyond the legal requirements to set this new standard in rail safety. On top of the new design, we have equipped all our RTCs with sensor technology that allows us to continuously track our RTCs. We use this technology for example to check location, speed, speeding and g-forces. This way we stay on top of possible issues with our deliveries.” www.anqore.com www.wascosa.ch

ANQORE WANTED A DESIGN THAT WOULD GO BEYOND