JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #109 - November/December 2016 - 5

public transportation OPlNlON
increases the weight of the vehicle, the load
of the roads, changes the dynamic of the
bus and reduces the number of deliverable
passengers.
All of these parameters indicate the
application of composite materials, not
only as internal and external covers of a
metal frame, but as a load bearing structure,
too.
JCM: What is the importance of design in the
Modulo project?

P. M.: The modulo bus concept provides
two main advantages from the aspect of
the body. First there is the modular body
concept, which provides the opportunity
for creating longer and shorter buses (from
6.5, 8, 9.5, to even 11m long), built from
the same repeating elements. Above this
the articulated bodies are used. This enables
us to reduce moulding and manufacturing
costs drastically, and to increase the
competitiveness on price, too.
Secondly, the Modulo is built as a selfsupporting body structure and the
composite materials are used not only
as internal or external covers. There are
actually no such covering panels at all,
because the body is built as a sandwich
structure, which provides the load bearing
function and the thermal, as well as the
noise insulation. The composite surface is
coated by special, structured PU and PUR
coatings to provide the required surface
quality and protection allowing our body
to be competitive with conventional bus
bodies, where the metal frame is covered
by composite or metal panels with the
application of thermal insulator in-between.
The application of composite materials
in the vehicle manufacturing is more and
more important, but we know that the
cost of materials and the cycle time of the

applied technologies are often too high to
use them for standard personal vehicles.
In case of buses the series are much lower,
which allows to use the well-known and
developed, stable composite technologies.
JCM: What did this award change in the daily
life of NCC?

P. M.: First of all, we are very proud that

the evopro has chosen us as a developing
partner for this great and very innovative
project. The bus concept was created
by evopro, but the NCC, besides the
manufacturing, developed a lot of moulds,
technologies and processes, including
all the technical documentation like plybooks, technical specifications, a specified
quality management system and others,
which allow the licencing and localization
of the body manufacturing to be close to
the customers in the future. Meanwhile we
could grow our expert team and improve
our competences due to the close and very
efficient cooperation with evopro.
The JEC innovation award is a great honour
for both of us and extremely important
because it helps to introduce us in the
composite branch as a capable, innovative
and resourceful company, which is very
valuable for us in this fast-growing and
developing business. The complexity of the
program required the usage and the proof
of the wide range of our competences and
the publicity gained by the award brought
for us a lot of new inquiries. Perhaps, this is
the most important for such a start-up like
NCC, which has great technical and human
resources, but needs to be recognized and
acknowledged on the international market.

What can composite materials still bring in
the urban transport market? What do you
personally expect from it?

P. M.: I'm sure that electric vehicles will

The modular
concept offers the
opportunity for
creating longer or
shorter busses

Mr. Mikhail StoLyarov (CEO NCC),
Dr. Peter Molnar (technical director of NCC) and
Mr. Csaba Meszaros (president of evopro Group)
during the JEC World 2016 Awards Ceremony

prevail in urban public transportation
systems, already in the near future.
The 8m-long Modulo buses, which are
in daily operation in Budapest, have an
operating range of approximately 210 km
and their energy consumption is under
0.65-0.75 kWh/km, with zero emissions.
For the operator, it costs about 8-10 euros/
day for the same capacity, but with Euro6
diesel engine buses, it would be 8 to 10 times
higher. Reducing pollution is a priority in
highly populated cities. City buses have
a predetermined route and range, so that
optimal recharging of batteries can be
planned. Thanks to the fast development
of batteries and battery management
systems, the energy density of the units
is growing significantly and the charging
time is becoming shorter and shorter,
but the batteries will probably remain the
heaviest part of electric vehicles for the
next ten years. Composite materials will
provide the best solution to compensate
for this extra weight, in addition to all
their other advantages, especially with the
growing demand, which will foster the
use of automated and more cost-efficient
composite production. We can see a lot
of further development potential, but
our composite bus is already 20% lighter
than equivalent metal buses, while metal
body developers are achieving maybe
1-2% weight reduction with their new
solutions. Considering the mechanical and
technological properties of these materials,
I think engineers will more and more learn
how to create real composite structures
instead of "metal-type" constructions from
glass or carbon. As a result, I'm sure we
will see an increasing number of smart
composite solutions in cities in the near
future.

No109 November - December 2016 /

More information:
www.nccrussia.com & www.evopro.hu

jec composites magazine

5
http://www.nccrussia.com http://www.evopro.hu
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #109 - November/December 2016
