Grammer’s Ubility One Concept

Comprising three seat models - Ubility Light, Ubility Air and Ubility Shift - Grammer is showing the innovative way to urban mobility of the future with systematic lightweight construction, sustainable design, and high user comfort. The name is both program and premiere: with Ubility One, a combination of the terms “urban” and “mobility”, Grammer is positioning itself as the first supplier of an integrated interior concept for tomorrow’s buses and trains.

The range has its roots in the EU-funded “Shift2Rail” initiative, to which Grammer contributed a project study. Thorsten Seehars, Grammer CEO, said: “With Ubility One, we are addressing the needs of all market participants, offering comfort to passengers, and efficiency and flexibility to OEMs and transport operators, while meeting society’s expectations with respect to sustainable, climate-neutral products.”

During the development of Ubility One the focus was on people and their utilization profiles in urban transportation. Among other things, the Grammer team considered recent studies of passenger flows and the resulting interior occupation zones: standing/leaning around entrances/exits, flexible seating options for high-change frequencies, and seating areas for passengers with longer travel times.

Ubility Air, a lightweight seat using twin-sheet technology, was designed for the latter: the seat consists of an outer and inner shell, which are connected to form a comfortable yet highly stable air cushion structure. The ultra-light Ubility Light features innovative minimalism to meet requirements with regard to the flexible use of space in high-fluctuation interior zones: an aluminum seat frame consisting of exactly five components is covered with a high-tech textile, can be used in both directions of travel and is variably configurable. 

Finally, Ubility Shift is the next-generation solution for standing and leaning: Likewise featuring an ultra-lightweight design, the leaning and seating module offers a combination of padded, body-high supports for leaning as well as ergonomically configured grab handles. The support cushions feature clever kinematics that allow a small seat surface to extend out.

Sustainability in design, production, and operation

On its way towards becoming a Green Company, sustainability is a crucial aspect in all new developments for Grammer: Ubility One meets this requirement in terms of product design as well as the use of materials and service life. For example, the Ubility Light ultralight seat achieves a weight advantage of 60 % compared with the seat shells commonly used today. This results in enormous potential for lowering carbon emissions in passenger rail transport: in European urban train transportation alone, the use of Ubility Light could help to avoid 130,000 tons of carbon per year. 

In addition, the complete product lifecycle of Ubility Light is designed with recyclability in mind and can be significantly extended through refit/refurbishment programs. The innovative Ubility Air double shell does not use any material mixtures, relying instead on a mono-material made from recycled materials. Consequently, the twin-sheet structure with air cushions is not only up to 100 % recyclable, but also easy to clean and highly resistant to vandalism thanks to its impervious surface.

The manufacturing of the first models in the Ubility One product family is scheduled to commence at a European Grammer works in 2023.