Alstom has launched an aluminium welding line at its rolling stock manufacturing facility in Wrocław.
As part of this project, heavy and hard-to-recycle steel is being replaced with aluminium, which offers the advantages of lower weight and higher efficiency.
The implementation of this project involved an investment of 10 million euros. These funds were allocated to the procurement of new equipment and technologies, the adaptation of the plant’s infrastructure to new manufacturing processes, and staff training. Thanks to this investment project, the Wrocław facility will be able to secure new contracts and produce aluminium car body sections for regional trains targeting the European market.
The deployment of these new technologies is strongly supported by Alstom Konstal, based in Chorzów. With years of expertise in aluminium welding, the company has a proven track record of manufacturing fully assembled rolling stock for international operators, including the Pop regional trains for Trenitalia and the ICNG trains for the Netherlands.
Aluminium is being increasingly adopted across the modern railway sector — its use extends the service life of train carriages to approximately 40 years. The rail transport industry is gradually phasing out steel, replacing it with aluminium as the primary material for train manufacturing. This shift stems from the transfer of innovations from the aerospace sector, where there is high demand for lightweight material development, followed by the adaptation of these technologies by railway enterprises.
Furthermore, aluminium boasts excellent formability — it can be easily machined into custom shapes, and excess material is fully recyclable. This, in turn, shortens the train production cycle.
“Aluminium has numerous advantages over stainless steel in train manufacturing. It reduces the weight of rolling stock, which in turn lowers the energy consumption required for train operation and consequently cuts carbon dioxide emissions. At the same time, the reduced carriage weight allows trains to run faster even on existing rail networks” noted Sławomir Cyza, President and CEO of Alstom in Poland, Ukraine and the Baltic States.
