The Superbus by Prof. Dr. Ockels is officially presented at the start of the Millionaire Fair on Thursday 9 December in the RAI Congress Centre in Amsterdam. TenCate Aerospace Composites has supplied various composite materials for the construction of the Superbus.
Besides the composite material for the construction, carbon material is supplied for the panels of the doors. Thanks to the excellent safety properties this material is already widely applied in the interior of airplanes.
The Superbus Concept was developed by Prof. Dr. Ockels. The basic idea is that the Superbus provides comfortable, demand-dependent and point-to-point transport and thanks to high speed, can compete with cars and trains. The electrically powered Superbus consumes as much energy when driving 250 km per hour as a normal bus at 100 kilometers per hour. The Superbus will carry 23 passengers in a very comfortably way.
Construction
Thanks to the use of composite materials the 15 meters long Superbus has a low weight and at the same time is extremely strong. The chassis of the Superbus – including the cockpit and the rear, where the batteries are installed – is entirely made of carbon fiber composite that is among others supplied by TenCate. TenCate is the main supplier of advanced materials to the international aerospace industry.
Hinged doors
The Superbus is composed of several compartments, on each side accessible through eight hinged doors. TenCate supplied carbon laminate of the TenCate Cetex® brand for among others the door panels on the inside. This qualified material is widely used in the aerospace industry because of its excellent properties in terms of fire safety.
Source: http://www.tencate.com/