Composite cylinders for a new range of natural gas buses B Renewing their confidence in Luxfer products, MAN Bus & Truck UK uses natural gas storage cylinders made by this manufacturer of highpressure cylinders for the EcoCity range of natural gas buses (Figure 1). The selected cylinders are made of an aluminium liner wrapped with epoxy-impregnated carbon fibre by means of filament winding. ecause of the operating practices of the UK bus market, gas buses going into service are largely expected to meet the refuelling fill-time of their diesel-powered equivalents, which in gas terms means what is referred to as ‘fast fill’. The Luxfer-Dynetek Type 3 product of Luxfer, which has an aluminium liner with aerospace-grade carbon fibre wrapping material, is used exclusively on the MAN EcoCity range. - Composite cylinders for a new range of natural gas buses ............................ p13 Applications buses - Triton’s first flight for US Navy .............................. p15 - The first grid-connected offshore wind turbine . p16 According to MAN Truck & Bus, this provides a very safe and robust solution with fast-fill operations. In addition, the product’s strong thermal properties offer a further key benefit for the operator: the gas cools very efficiently in the tank during fast-fill operations, through heat-transfer to the outside surface as well heat absorption in the aluminium wall. So, Formulating Success www.axson.com Fig. 1: The Anglian Bus fleet of MAN EcoCity gas buses has been in operation for around four months and is already showing better fuel performance than anticipated No82 July 2013 / jec composites magazine 13http://www.axson.com