SPOLKA AKCYJNA ODLEWNIE POLSKIE

Their core work

Odlewnie Polskie (Polish Foundries) is a large Polish foundry operation based in Starachowice, producing cast metal components — most likely aluminum and iron castings — for industrial end markets. Their participation in the ENSUREAL project, which focused on sustainable alumina production using the Pedersen process, points to direct involvement in aluminum-related production processes and a concrete operational stake in raw material supply chains. In HORSE, they contributed a real-world manufacturing floor as a testbed for robotics and IoT-driven smart factory systems aimed at SMEs. They are an industrial end-user and practitioner, not a research institute — their value in EU consortia is real production context, operational constraints, and large-scale process validation.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

In the earlier phase (HORSE, starting 2015), Odlewnie Polskie engaged with smart robotics and IoT-based automation — a classic Industry 4.0 entry point for a traditional industrial manufacturer modernizing its production floor. By 2017, their focus shifted decisively toward sustainable process industries: ENSUREAL brought them into circular economy frameworks and the Pedersen alumina process, suggesting growing concern with the environmental footprint of their upstream raw materials, possibly driven by EU regulatory pressure on the metals sector. The trajectory is clear — from automation-of-existing-processes toward greener-materials-and-resource-efficiency.

They are moving toward sustainable process engineering and low-carbon raw material sourcing, making them a relevant industrial partner for future projects targeting green metals, decarbonization of process industries, or circular economy in manufacturing.

How they like to work

Odlewnie Polskie has participated in both projects strictly as a consortium partner, never as coordinator — a pattern consistent with a large industrial company contributing production expertise and real-world testing capacity rather than driving research agendas. With 30 unique partners across 11 countries from just 2 projects, they joined large, complex consortia, which suggests they are comfortable operating in multi-partner European projects but prefer to let research-focused partners lead. For a future collaborator, they represent a valuable industrial anchor: a company that brings scale, process credibility, and end-user validation to research consortia.

Despite only two projects, Odlewnie Polskie has built connections with 30 distinct partners spanning 11 countries — an unusually wide network for this level of EU participation, reflecting the large, cross-national consortia typical of IA-funded projects in sustainable manufacturing. No geographic concentration is apparent beyond their home country of Poland.

What sets them apart

Odlewnie Polskie is one of the few traditional Polish foundry companies with documented H2020 participation, giving them a rare combination of heavy industrial operational credibility and proven capacity to contribute to competitive EU-funded research. Their direct experience with both smart factory deployment (HORSE) and sustainable alumina production chemistry (ENSUREAL/Pedersen process) means they can bridge digital manufacturing and green materials — a combination few Central European foundries can offer. For a consortium targeting the green transition of the metals or process industries sector in Central/Eastern Europe, they are a credible and well-networked industrial anchor.

Highlights from their portfolio

• ENSUREAL
  Addresses the niche Pedersen process for sustainable alumina production — a low-CO2 alternative to the Bayer process — making this one of the more technically specific green-metals projects in H2020 and directly relevant to aluminum foundry supply chains.
• HORSE
  A large Innovation Action deploying real IoT-controlled robotics systems on SME manufacturing floors, with Odlewnie Polskie providing industrial-scale process validation from an operational foundry environment.