Four decades of innovation in comfort and safety: Alstom celebrates 40 years of Dispen dampers at Le Creusot
Four decades of innovation in comfort and safety: Alstom celebrates 40 years of Dispen dampers at Le Creusot
On 10 October 2024, employees at the Le Creusot site in France, along with members of top-management, gathered to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Alstom's Dispen dampers. The event, attended by the press, provided an opportunity to showcase the Group's expertise and capacity for innovation.
“The Alstom Dispen team is located at the Le Creusot site and is integrated into the Bogie teams. This close proximity facilitates communication and the sharing of skills. We oversee each step of the value chain, from design to production. Our dedicated and focused team of experts ensures high responsiveness and customer satisfaction for both internal and external customers worldwide.”
David Nicolier
Dispen Department Director, Alstom
How it started
The great industrial and human adventure of Dispen began in the 1980s. Around this time, it was starting to become clear that standard road dampers could no longer meet the specific requirements of the railway world. The development of the new French high-speed train (TGV) made it necessary to create a new design, which led to the birth of the energy dissipator (“DISsiPateur d’ENergie”, in French), developed in partnership with SNCF. The secret of the Dispen damper lies in the perfect control of the oil flow through the piston, thanks to efficient technology allowing precise control of the effort, developed for optimised comfort and safe movement of the train.
Dispen dampers: The main benefits
Today, Alstom's Dispen range of dampers includes linear, friction and bi-mode products. These solutions provide operators with innovative and effective means to control train dynamics, guaranteeing more comfortable travelling conditions, reducing noise and vibration, and lowering the cost of ownership due to reduced wear and tear on mechanical parts. They are 100% maintainable, offering an extended lifetime, optimised lifecycle cost and reduced scrapping. The dampers can be repaired or replaced without dismantling the bogie. Additionally, dampers enable levelling systems to solve accessibility problems caused by platform heights.
The Dispen range offers more than just dampers for bogies. It also includes carbody-sided inter-car and anti-roll dampers, as well as anti-yaw dampers that connect the bogie and the carbody. These are vital for ensuring the stability of rail vehicles while in motion.
Although invisible to passengers, Dispen dampers are well-established in the rail industry. This is particularly true for the bi-mode damper, which won an Innovation Award at the SIFER trade show in Lille in 2015. This product reduces the transverse acceleration of the train in curves, showing excellent efficiency for trains operating on curved networks, reducing track and wheel wear while enhancing passenger safety and comfort. Building on its passenger-focused approach, Alstom is also working on active dampers to improve dynamic stability and further optimised comfort.
A global track record
With 40 years of expertise in railway suspension solutions, Alstom’s damper products are used all over the world for all types of rolling stock, including light rail and metro vehicles, regional and very high-speed trains, and locomotives. Dispen dampers feature in iconic projects across all continents, including the TGV, trams and regional trains in France, the Amtrak high-speed train and the Toronto metro in North America, the Lima and Panama City metro systems in South America, the X’Trapolis regional trains in South Africa, electric locomotives and the Chennai metro in India, the Chengdu tramway in China, and Citadis light rail systems in Melbourne and Hillside, Australia.
Le Creusot, a major player in the rail industry
Alstom's Le Creusot site, which employs nearly 800 people, manufactures bogies and damper systems for all types of rolling stock, including high-speed trains, locomotives, regional trains, metros and light rail vehicles. Dispen dampers are part of the extensive Bogies & Drives product family within Alstom's Components organisation, along with Siegen in Germany, another major bogie development centre (CDS). Both sites are recognised for their ability to develop, produce and maintain bogie solutions tailored to customer needs and the characteristics of specific markets.
