Zbloc Norden AB Started on Öland in 1999

Noise barrier manufacturing for railways

Z-bloc Norden AB was started in 1999 by the brothers Bo and Hans Samuelsson on Öland with the license rights for an absorbent based on the reuse of used car tires. The absorbent was cast into a concrete frame, which was appropriate as the brothers had long experience in the concrete industry.

The first generation of screens consisted of large pieces of rubber glued together. In Bo Samuelsson’s garage on Öland, generation 2 of the noise barrier was therefore soon developed. It had a much more aesthetic appearance and was much more absorbent, especially from a maintenance point of view.

After 6 years of work, there were a number of stretches of track-side noise barriers set up in Sweden in 2005 and therefore it was natural that Z-bloc Norden AB 2005-2009 participated in the European project Quiet City. Q-city was a project where one of the main goals was to develop good noise reduction solutions and within this project, Z-bloc Norden AB developed the 3rd generation of trackside noise barriers that were tested in Bro (Stockholm).

Both the frame and the absorber were new, and the screen included brand new security solutions. From previously spending days, evenings and weekends on Öland tearing and gluing car tires together, the absorber was now built up in a completely new way by combining cavities with a denser rubber mat.

Here, too, the aim was primarily to ensure a long service life for the absorber, but also to enable larger deliveries. Coping with large deliveries was put to the test in connection with the installation on the Botnia Line in 2009.

Due to increased demand, Z-bloc Norden AB was able to move into its own industrial property in Färjestaden on Öland in 2010, where it has the capacity to both develop and manufacture products on a larger scale than before. To remain a market leader in the future, when low trackside displays are increasingly used, we embrace every opportunity to innovate and improve every day. The result is regularly seen in the form of new generations of screens.

In 2013, an opportunity arose for a license agreement for a completely new type of absorber, an absorber that combines very good acoustic properties with important material engineering properties. Because we see great potential in the new absorber, we used all our experience and knowledge to quickly develop a completely new noise barrier optimally adapted to the new Vitrumit absorber.

For the summer of 2013, we were proud to present brand new trackside noise barriers, which we named Sound-block.