Run throughout as a family business, Budapest-based Kárászy has 150 years of experience in shock absorber engineering and now has an expanding range of railway products being offered across three continents.
The humble shock absorber is a critical component on rail vehicles. The railway vehicle’s ride quality and safety are not only affected by the wheel-rail contact geometry but also by the shock absorbers attached to the bogie. Moreover, the shock absorbers provide structural integrity to the railway bogie; they are one of the crucial elements for a safe and comfortable ride.
A proud history
Kárászy is one of the oldest automotive and railway suppliers in central and eastern Europe. Established in 1872 in Budapest, it specialises in developing and manufacturing shock absorbers for cars and railway vehicles.
The company began when the Kárászy family worked on manufacturing horse-drawn vehicle suspension elements. Advances in transport technology led Kárászy to enter the business of automotive shock absorber production, and in the 1990s the Hungarian national railway MÁV invited Kárászy to develop, manufacture and maintain railway shock absorbers. In the first few years of activity in the railway market, Kárászy provided exclusive maintenance services for the railway shock absorbers.
Besides overhaul and maintenance activities, the company developed its first shock absorbers for older Hungarian locomotives and coaches to meet increasing demand. The company subsequently engineered several products for local and international customers, and today the fifth generation of the family has led the business to become one of the largest shock absorber R&D and manufacturing companies in the CEE region.
The product range
Kárászy’s products and engineering services have proven to meet global customers’ requirements with complete satisfaction from Europe to Asia to Africa to North America, and with the best quality and robust cooperation.
The company continuously develops new offerings based on our customers’ demands. Kárászy’s core value is innovation and development. The company put much effort into researching the needs of railway vehicles. The new generation products are highly recyclable, delivering reusability after straightforward and cost-efficient maintenance. Our corporate policy for the last two decades has prioritised environmental protection and reducing carbon emissions by employing sustainable engineering principles in raw materials and processing.
Kárászy’s new railway shock absorbers possess a design that can meet the needs of various rail applications, including primary, secondary and yaw shock absorbers, covering all the dampers’ needs. This new technology is called OTMEP, which means ‘one touch makes everything possible’. This design aims to provide cost-efficiency, high-performance, long service life and easy integration to a broad range of railway vehicles.
Kárászy has also developed a new generation of railway primary and secondary shock absorbers called K148. These are engineered to provide lightweight, high-load bearing ability and small assembly sizes, which is one of the challenges in the bogie design. Urban rail vehicles in particular require such damper types, so we have come up with an integrated solution. With this new product release, Kárászy has expanded its portfolio by reinforcing its well-known range of bogie shock absorbers aimed at metros, trams and main line railways.
There are four main shock absorbers for railway bogies: primary damping, secondary vertical damping, secondary horizontal damping, and horizontal yaw damping. Kárászy offers each type for almost every type of railway vehicle. Kárászy’s reputation has been earned from its advanced engineering skill and 150 years of knowledge in the field. Our shock absorbers can meet any demands that may arise in the field, including constrained installation (limited size requirements), corrosion (for dusty or humid environments), challenging ambient conditions (such as extreme heat or cold), high-load applications and much more.
International activity
Kárászy runs its international business on three continents. Among the highlights of its global business in recent years was a partnership with OEM partner Ganz Holding to supply Egyptian National Railways in 2011. Within the project, Kárászy developed, manufactured and supplied over 1 000 shock absorber units to ENR. Kárászy is the tier 1 supplier for Ganz bogies produced in Hungary.
Kárászy has entered the Indian market with the local partner to supply new generation railway shock absorbers to Indian Railways. Kárászy developed a new series, K147 and K146, for the specific requirements of IR. The novel design was first produced in 2017 and we sent the first batch of shock absorbers to India in 2019. Currently, the project is ongoing with a local partner for various new fleets of IR passenger coaches.
Kárászy has also supported the market in Bulgaria and the southern Balkans, being a preferred supplier for Bulgarian rolling stock producer Intercom JSC Dryanovo. In 2019, Kárászy and Intercom signed a partnership agreement on the development, manufacturing and sales of shock absorbers for newly built and refurbished passenger coaches.
In Romania, Kárászy has a broad range of clients from both the private and public sectors. So far, Kárászy and its partners have completed various projects to supply components to national passenger operator CFR Călători. In 2022, Kárászy plans to complete the delivery of over 1 000 units for diesel and electric locos to the operator, while our contracts for other Romanian producers such as Softronic and Reloc continue to grow year-on-year.
Another growth market is Türkiye, where we have a long standing partnership with Bozankaya. Kárászy developed a new generation of tram shock absorbers for Bozankaya’s Antalya light rail project, as well as delivering components for Bozankaya’s new bi-directional trams; these are to be supplied to the network in Kayseri. We are also providing our newest urban rail solution, the K148, for Bozankaya’s trains which will be used on the Gebze –Darica metro on the edge of Istanbul.
Back at home, Kárászy remains the tier 1 supplier for MÁV, and we have actively participated in developing and supplying tailor-made solutions as well as commercial vehicle products for the national railway for more than 20 years now. A new contract was signed last year between Kárászy and MÁV for recycling and supplying shock absorbers for passenger coaches, locomotives and electric multiple-units in use nationwide.