Volgren, Australia’s largest bus body manufacturer, is strengthening its commitment to innovation and sustainability through a long-standing partnership with Capral Aluminium. The collaboration ensures a reliable supply of high-quality, locally sourced aluminium that forms the backbone of Volgren’s bus body structures.
“There’s been a misunderstanding in some parts of the industry that, because we use the Co-Bolt gussets from Hess, all aluminium used in our buses comes from Switzerland, but our aluminium is all locally sourced from Capral,” said Yuri Tessari, Chief Commercial Officer and Head of Strategy at Volgren. “We only use HESS’ Co-Bolt technology that helps us to bolt and screw our structure together without the need to weld.”
Since its founding in the 1970s in Dandenong, Victoria, Volgren has bucked global trends by choosing aluminium over steel for bus body construction. This decision, born from a 1979 partnership with Swedish OEM Volvo, continues to deliver wide-ranging benefits.
“Aluminium overall is a better raw material to use – it is lighter and has anti-corrosion properties,” Tessari explained. “You can build a body with aluminium that will last longer, regardless of operational conditions. Especially when we are venturing into zero-emissions technologies, having a lighter body structure provides us with far better fuel or energy efficiency than what we’d get with steel.”
Volgren’s adoption of Capral’s custom-designed aluminium extrusions and its innovative Co-Bolt assembly system, which eliminates the need for welding, ensures consistent build quality.