Railway seats of the future Growag

RAILWAY SEATS OF THE FUTURE

For nearly 50 years Growag, a company from Grodzisk Wielkopolski, has been Poland’s leading manufacturer of railway passenger seats and shock absorbers. “Despite such a long activity on the market, we are still young, dynamic and modern company”, says, Growag’s president of the board.

“WE constantly invest in the latest technology and modern engineering park as well as in the research and development department, which works on future solutions. We meet international standards, both technical and ecological. Our efforts contributed to creating a modern enterprise that have earned the trust of its customers, whom we can offer products of highest quality”, says Growag`s CEO.

The company was founded in 1972. From the very outset, it has been manufacturing passenger seats for railway cars and shock absorbers for railway car bogies, as well as providing a wide range of services for the railway and other industries. “Railway seats are very complicated constructions, as ergonomics and strength are subject to very restrictive regulations – for example in terms of fire regulations. Each our seat is manufactured with special attention to all those details that make traveling so much more comfortable and enjoyable. Our additional advantages are flexibility and customer-oriented approach, rapid modelbased prototyping and development, competitive price/quality ratio and timely implementation of projects”, explains the president of the board.

Geo Globe Polska

For over 25 years we specialize in vacuum thermoforming of plastics (including the twin sheet technology). We specialize in the production and design of returnable packaging, as well as making of interior elements for commercial vehicles, car body parts (also for electric cars), seating (for railway and aircrafts) and other high quality plastic parts. We offer to our customers a wide range of services – from designing the final parts, to designing the tools, prototyping and running serial production. We make the tools for our production in-house, using CNC machines, taking full control over the process and as the result - decreasing the lead time. Our goods are produced according to the ISO 2768 ck standard, related to thermoforming. We make, among others, parts for medical, advertising, automotive companies, using the latest materials with high impact or flame retardant charachteristics that have a long life span and can be recycled.

www.geoglobe.pl For Europe and beyond

Today, Growag employs more than 120 people. All production is carried out in its Grodzisk Wielkopolski factory, which is in western Poland, some 20 minutes away by car from the A2 highway to Germany. In recent years, the company’s annual growth has been spectacular. In terms of results, annual growth has systematically reached double-digit figures since 2015.

Exports share 20 per cent of the Growag’s total sales, the main concentration effort export is the EU countries. Now it has started to expand in South and Middle America, Russia and Turkey. It recently delivered seats for the underground trains in Minsk, Belarus.

As an international railway industry supplier, Growag has been certified under ISO 9001, the globally recognised Standard of Quality Management, guaranteeing the highest quality, reliability and technical safety of the company’s products. It also has the CL1 certificate according to EN15085-2:2017. Recently, it obtained the Russian GOST certificate, now administered by the Euro-Asian Council for Standardization, Metrology and Certification

(EASC), a standard organization chartered by the Commonwealth of Independent States (a regional intergovernmental organization of 10 post-Soviet republics in Eurasia). The company cooperates with the best R&D engineering and design offices in Poland.

Growag has developed a unique work method called Ergo-tech, which is a process as well as a set of practical procedures in the company’s key fields of activity. The methodical approach allows Growag to follow effectively the changing expectations of its clients and ensure the highest quality of delivered solutions. The company delivers its products to all major rolling stock manufacturers such as: Stadler, Siemens, Grivita, Hyundai Rotem, NEWAG, PESA, and FPS, as well as their customers.

Growag is also one of Poland’s leading manufacturers of shock absorbers, which comply with the highest quality standards. These are designed for use in passenger rail carriages, electric and diesel multiple units, locomotives, metro trains and tramways. “Our shock absorbers are very good and very durable. In this respect, they surpass all applicable standards”, says the president of the board.

Seats for long and short travels

The company specializes in manufacturing upholstered passenger seats for both the 1st and the 2nd class rail cars for long-distance travel, including sleeping cars. It shares about half of Poland’s railway passenger seats market and is an indisputable leader of the regional transport segment of that market.

Currently, Growag focuses on two market segments: the premium segment seats dedicated to railway units operating on long distances and the seats for regional transport, the fastest growing segment of the railway market. The former has found its full expression in the Equinox seats line co-financed by the EU funds under the Intelligent Development program.

“The Equinox line is our response to the constantly growing requirements and the demand of the global rail market, while taking care of the natural environment. The state-of-the-art construction and material solutions used in production enable us to noticeably reduce the welding process throughout the production cycle. In addition, we managed to achieve a lower weight of seats, which in turn translates directly to reducing the energy consumption of rolling stock and operating costs. The technology used enables quick and easy creation of various chair configurations, and the modular and universal construction ensures any modifications, fully adapted to the individual needs of the recipients”, explains the president of the board.

In the regional transport sector (up to 250 km distance) the company cooperates with the Polish Institute of Industrial Design, one of the oldest institutions dealing in industrial design in Europe. “A whole line of new seats will be ready next year. The seats will be of the lowest possible mass, comfort, of modern design and technology”, says the president of the board.

One of GROWAG key partners on the Polish market is GEO GLOBE. Through long-term and multifaceted cooperation, they jointly implemented difficult and innovative projects. n