Kawasaki Delivers CFRP efWING® Bogies to JR Shikoku

Tokyo, May 19, 2016 - Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. announced today that it has completed delivery of four efWING^*1 bogies equipped with CFRP^*2 leaf springs to the Shikoku Railway Company (JR Shikoku).

The newly delivered efWING bogies will be installed on a 121-series two-car, electric multiple train, with two trucks to be used on each car. Each efWING's leaf spring and wheel sections feature lime-green coloring, a symbolic color used for Kawasaki motorcycles. This train will start revenue service operations as a 7200-series train on JR Shikoku’s Yosan Line (running between Takamatsu and Iyo-Saijo Stations) and Dosan Line (between Tadotsu and Kotohira Stations) in June 2016.

These new-generation bogies developed by Kawasaki substitute high-strength, lightweight CFRP components for a portion of the steel frame components found in conventional bogies. Furthermore, the efWING replaces the coil springs found in standard suspension assemblies with bow-shaped CFRP leaf springs, which combine the functions of the individual, coil-spring-based sections. The end result is greatly reduced unit weight for decreased energy-related costs and more environmentally friendly performance.

The adoption of CFRP springs also enables flexing of the bogie unit as a whole, which stabilizes amounts of force imparted by each wheel on the rails. This provides a smoother ride and cuts the rate of wheel-load reduction^*3 by half to reduce derailment risk and thus increase safety. Moreover, the efWING's comprehensive design approach, which is based on the principles of Kansei Engineering (affective engineering), makes each truck visually appealing and fun to ride upon from the passenger's perspective. Moving forward, Kawasaki intends to leverage the unique advantages offered by the efWING to provide new value to customers.

Following this latest delivery of bogie units, Kawasaki intends to expand efWING sales efforts while pursuing more environmentally friendly manufacturing.

	efWING bogie for JR Shikoku

*1  efWING: registered trademark of Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd.

*2  CFRP： carbon-fiber–reinforced plastic.

*3  Wheel-load reduction: one possible cause of train derailment, in which the vertical load between the wheel and the rail is reduced along curving sections of track, due to a fault or irregularity in the rail, or in other