Multina Inc. is a Canadian company which has developed a new bus seat made of advanced high strength steels to meet strict safety, strength and economy demands. Compared to aluminium, the high strength steel seat is similar in weight, but its production costs are much lower. The design also puts the resilience of the material to use. The bus seat has been awarded with the second prize in the Swedish Steel Prize 2006, for design excellence.
The new bus seat has been in use for more than 18 months in express buses running between the Canadian cities of Quebec and Montreal. The buses are subjected to high traffic density and loading, which demonstrates that the nominated design has undergone serious field tests and has emerged with flying colours.

“These buses are in service most hours of the day and night, and often carry many passengers,” explains Éric Belval, Development Engineer and Project Leader at Multina Inc. of Drummondville, Canada. “No material problems have been reported to us. This demonstrates that advanced high strength steels produce a very durable structure, even though we have used much thinner material than in the past.”