Whats an ‘integral’ coach?
The ‘integral’ coaches built by ICF have monocoque or single-shell bodies (based on a 1950’s Swiss design, ‘Schlieren’ Swiss Car and Elevator Manufacturing Co.) with the floor being part of the body; it is an anti-telescopic design, which prevents coaches from being crushed lengthwise in the event of a train collision. Since they were brought into use, they have substantially reduced the number of passenger deaths in various cases of head-on collisions of trains. They are welded coaches fabricated from steel. The single-shell design features a stressed skin. The shell acts as a hollow girder – the underframe, the walls, and the roof are joined with one another to form a single structural tube. The hollow girder offers resistance to bending and torsional stresses with efficient use of material, allowing reduction in the total weight of the coach compared to some earlier heavy designs that attempted to achieve strength and stability simply through increased weight of the frame structures
