Morocco rail project uses recycled plastic sleepers

Axion International, which claims to produce the world’s strongest recycled composite plastic industrial building products and railroad crossties (sleepers), has announced the successful completion of its first project with ONCF, the national railway of Morocco. The project provided Axion’s patented recycled plastic composite sleepers for the North African nation.
May 21, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
5658 Axion International, which claims to produce the world’s strongest recycled composite plastic industrial building products and railroad crossties (sleepers), has announced the successful completion of its first project with 5659 ONCF, the national railway of Morocco. The project provided Axion’s patented recycled plastic composite sleepers for the North African nation.

ONCF, which budgets around 160kms of track to be replaced annually, operates more than 1,900 kilometres of track throughout Morocco  and carried over 29 million passengers last year. The crossties were produced at Axion’s manufacturing facility in Portland, PA and measure 9 inches x 5.5 inches (0.229m x 0.14m) and up to 14.4 feet (4.40m) in length.

Developed in conjunction with Rutgers University’s Materials Sciences and Engineering Department, Axion’s Recycled Structural Composite (RSC) material is inert and contains no toxic materials. It is impenetrable to insect infestation, it is made from virtually 100% recycled plastics and it does not warp, rust or corrode. Because it is lighter than traditional materials, transporting RSC is less expensive and reduces energy costs. In addition, RSC is recyclable at the end of its functional life.

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • Papercast upgrades Poznan bus info
    October 22, 2020
    E-paper displays save energy costs, say authorities in Polish town
    Read More
  • Machine vision - cameras for intelligent traffic management
    January 25, 2012
    For some, machine vision is the coming technology. For others, it’s already here. Although it remains a relative newcomer to the ITS sector, its effects look set to be profound and far-reaching. Encapsulating in just a few short words the distinguishing features of complex technologies and their operating concepts can sometimes be difficult. Often, it is the most subtle of nuances which are both the most important and yet also the most easily lost. Happily, in the case of machine vision this isn’t the case:
    Read More
  • HTS awarded patent for license plate character recognition systems
    December 13, 2012
    Israel-headquartered HTS, Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and computer vision systems specialist has been awarded a patent for its license plate character recognition systems by the US Patent and Trademark Office. The patent covers HTS's system for providing automatic character recognition and specifically, the multi-level neural network based characters identification methods and system. According to HTS, its systems enable precise, reliable, fast and automatic identification of characters on site and
    Read More
  • Cars reinvented: huge new opportunities and dangers, says IDTechEx
    December 2, 2016
    The new IDTechEx report, Electric Car Technology and Forecasts 2017-2027 finds that the biggest change in cars for one hundred years is now starting. It is driven by totally new requirements and capabilities. They will cause huge new businesses to appear but some giants currently making cars and their parts will spectacularly go bankrupt. Cities will ban private cars but encourage cars as autonomous taxis and rental vehicles. Already 65 per cent of cars in China are bought by businesses. The Japanese wa
    Read More

Highlighted Content