It is often said that some words of truth are spoken in jest, and how many times have we all experienced that.

Having a close relationship with your customer is paramount in any commercial sales organisation. Especially so within the rail sector, but most important is the design community that influence trend and style within the interior of rail vehicles. It goes without saying that any design house should have a full understanding of what you as a manufacturer can supply as standard and what bespoke solutions are possible in terms of design and colour, but crucially they should also have a working knowledge of how you produce your goods and how your manufacturing process works.

Forbo Flooring Systems’ Tessera product used on East Midlands Trains.

Walking around the Forbo Flooring Tessera carpet tile plant in Bamber Bridge, with visitors from Bombardier Transportation, sparked off the conversation about carpet tiles and that how amusing it would be if the Bitumen backed carpet tile product was tested to BS6853 to see how it stood up to the required fire standards for the rail industry. Very amusing; as we all knew they wouldn’t pass at all.  However the idea of taking the unfinished carpet cloth and applying the Forbo Flooring FR latex backing to the material, which we knew did meet BS6853, was immediately born.

The rail industry has very unique demands and we have well-established production techniques to ensure we meet the rail industry’s required fire certification, as well as allowing it to push the boundaries of design and product performance with our range of flooring products.

Atlantic Design meet the Forbo Flooring Transport team for another idea generation session.

Charles Greenway and Graham Love of Atlantic Design have been long term partners with Forbo Flooring and have pushed our design capabilities in the rail sector on more than one occasion. Having a good working knowledge of how we manufacture our vestibule matting and saloon carpet goes a long way to understanding what can be achieved, not only in colour and texture but also in yarn performance. They were the first to grasp the new concept and specified it for East Midlands Trains in both the vestibule and saloon areas. Another recent visit to Forbo Flooring found them at the Flotex site in Ripley discussing design options for their latest project, and once again exploring our capabilities to the full.

Written by Bob Summers, Key Account Manager – Transportation