Ruukki and the French company Alstom Transport have worked together to develop a new solution for the assembly of wall panels for train coaches.

The steel components for the sides of regional train coaches are made of special steel at Ruukki's service centre in Uusikaupunki, Finland. The first panels were delivered to France in October 2010.

The wall panels for the train coaches are made of Ruukki's high strength, hot rolled Optim special steels that are laser welded and cut into components ready for installation. High strength Optim special steels have enabled the thickness of the wall panels to be reduced so that a coach side panel weighs less than 500 kilograms.

A spokesperson at Alstom Transport said that "Alstom Transport and Ruukki started working together already at the train design stage. Use of high strength steels helps to reduce the weight of the coach structure. Using high strength special steels enables the coaches to be made of thinner material than earlier and yet still retain the required properties."

Mr Kari Lehtinen SVP sales at Ruukki Metals said that "For Ruukki, this is a new application for special steels and the manufacturing method used in this case can be utilized in a number of special steel applications."

The product safety aspect is just as important in the manufacture of rail transport vehicles as it is, for example, in the automotive industry. To ensure the safety and traceability of coach components, Ruukki's service centre in Uusikaupunki has obtained EN 15085-2 certification awarded by Det Norske Veritas.