Duke Acrylic Becomes First Chinese Manufacturer to Meet 6,000J Standard on Pioneering High-Speed Rail Project

The Shanghai-Suzhou-Huzhou High-Speed Railway, commenced operations in the end of 2024, has been guided by the vision of "melding high-speed rail with mountains and waters, and threading the Jiangnan water towns together." The project rests on five strategic pillars—wetland conservation, ecological restoration, noise and pollution control, low-carbon construction, and cultural integration—to strike a careful balance between infrastructure development and environmental stewardship. The result is a railway that celebrates the distinctive waterfront heritage of the region while powering the broader drive for an ecologically sound and integrated green development demonstration zone in the Yangtze River Delta.

Several homegrown ecological and environmental technologies developed for this line have been singled out as best-practice models for industry-wide promotion. In response to the dense settlement patterns along ancient towns and the stringent acoustic environment standards, the project pioneered a first-of-its-kind "four-in-one" noise-abatement system that synergizes noise insulation, landscape compatibility, ecological performance, and low-carbon operation. This system imposes significantly higher requirements on both the design and installation of noise barriers. Notably, the impact resistance standard for the acrylic panels used in these sound barriers was raised for the first time to 6,000J—a leap that caught domestic acrylic manufacturers, who had long adhered to the old specifications, off guard.

Among them, Duke Acrylic-Chengdu Cast Acrylic rose to the challenge by swiftly investing in R&D and reformulating its product composition, becoming the first Chinese manufacturer to meet the new standard and subsequently winning the bid for the project.