PROJECT FUTURA
The main objective of the proposed action is to improve the quality and safety of the lives of more than 55 million EU citizens living or working in the vicinity of train tracks.
The company Kovis, along with three partners, Omnia and Vud from Slovakia and ZX-Benet from the Czech Republic, engaged in the project named FUTURA, which main objective is to improve the quality and safety of the lives of more than 55 million EU citizens living or working in the vicinity of the train track. The proposed project will provide the latest developmental steps in the introduction of the divided brake discs (Divided Rail Freight Brake Disc – disc DRFB) for rail freight transport. It is a revolutionary solution, which affects the 3 key elements of the rail freight transport:
1) safety and security,
2) health and the environment, and
3) cost-effectiveness with strong horizontal and vertical “spill-over” effects and crucial social, economic and technical impacts.
The concrete goals of the project FUTURA are: to lower the noise level, shorten the braking distance, reduce vibrations and lower the mass of the brake disk. Consequently, the actions will help reduce the number of accidents, damages to cargo, extended the life cycle of wheels by 50% and reduce the life-cycle cost of the disk. All of these advantages were also recognized by the European Commission. For the development project FUTURA they acquired the assets of the research and innovation program of the European Union, OBZORJE 2020.
The Brake disc DRFB will significantly contribute to the increase of quantity of freight transported by rail, which is an environmentally friendly way in comparison to alternative modes (on road and air). The total available market size for innovation is about 12 billion Euros per year. Key target markets are the EU, the United States, Canada, the Russian Federation, China, India and Brazil.
You can follow the project progress on social network Facebook and www.facebook.com/projectfutura an the Web site www.projectfutura.com.
The FUTURA project has received funding from the European Union`s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No.700985
