ContiTech News

October 2008New city buses are now rolling down the grand boulevards of the French capital – with concertina walls from ContiTech.

One of Paris’s 15 new buses equipped with the multiple award-winning translucent concertina wall from ContiTech Elastomer Coatings in Northeim can now be admired as it travels down the prestigious route from Charles de Gaulle International airport to the Paris Opera. RATP, the Paris transport authority has ordered another 186 MAN Lion's City low-entry articulated buses from the MAN Commercial Vehicles Group, for which ContiTech produces the wall module. “We’re proud of this success because it’s an important reference project for our translucent concertina wall”, Alexander Papadimitriou, head of ContiTech’s Industrial Products segment, pleased with the achievement.

The module, 2.5 meters wide, 2.5 meters high and a little over 2 meters long, is the textile interface providing a flexible link between the two sections of the articulated bus. The concertina walls use a high-tech rubber that was originally designed for textile construction. The unique thing about the wall is that its material transparency brightens up the otherwise rather dark bus interior considerably and has the effect of intensifying the light thanks its special refractive properties.

Passengers, above all, find the design and brighter bus interior much more to their liking. After all, the conventional gray wall tends to make the bus dark and dismal while the transparent concertina wall gives it a clean and bright interior. And even in rain or at night, the bus radiates a friendly atmosphere. The bus drivers are also highly pleased with the new concertina wall because it gives them a much greater feeling of safety. They praise the better light conditions and enhanced visibility in the rear section of the bus.