50 years of advances: technology positioned for the future  

Even before beginning my ‘Siwertell’ career, in 2004, I worked with screw technology, which put me in a good position when I started as a manager for the company’s project department. Before long, I oversaw the start-up of a research and development and standardization department in Bjuv, Sweden, and I became responsible for developing the CAD/PLM system before commencing my current position as technical director.

A good outcome

My most prominent memory with the company was resolving a complex issue for a customer, where they needed help resolving issues with components that were delivered by a sub-contractor. 

It was a very intense meeting, which ended in a successful resolution. The customer thanked us for our great work. It demonstrated to me that we work hard to maintain good relationships with customers, even when situations are difficult, and issues are not our fault.

We were able to calmly and professionally explain our position and help to achieve a good outcome for our customer, which I believe embodies the business ethos of Bruks Siwertell of valuing customer relationships above all.

The past fifty years have seen significant changes. There has been a large expansion of our ship unloader product portfolio not only in size and capacity, but also in the development of new types of ship unloading equipment such as road-mobile and port-mobile ship unloaders, ship loaders, and terminal equipment. 

I feel that it is important to note that all the mechanical design work is carried out in-house, so we have a real sense of ownership of these developments and enormous pride in seeing their successful application in industry. 

Part of our development work is a continuous commitment to improve screw conveyor technology, and our focus on longer service lifetimes and lower operation costs. Both of these have yielded significant advantages for our customer.

Long-term environmental benefits

If I had to choose one long-term benefit of Siwertell technology, it would probably be the positive environmental impact that our ship unloaders have had on the industry. I would say that Siwertell screw ship unloader equipment is inherently environmentally friendly. Siwertell ship unloaders are robust and designed for a long service life, they enable operations with minimal dust emissions and no spillage, and offer very high capacities with equivalent high efficiencies and their operational costs are very competitive. Many companies are now looking at the circular economy, at energy efficiency, pondering how to adjust their business model toward these aims; we have already offered it for decades.

The increase in competition in the coal market and also the reduction of coal volumes, currently means that we are working hard to replace this market loss by raising our shares in other sectors, including biomass. The trend towards larger vessels and even higher capacities also appears to have slowed. 

Our industry and products are complex, and usually specifically tailormade to an operation. As we are able to handle so many different bulk materials, we have many different competitors, this make our experience, and technological and industry know-how, very important to be able to help customers make the right decision for their businesses.

To enhance this capability, we rely on teamwork within the company and cross-divisional shared expertise; we work together to achieve the best outcome for the customer and our company, which benefits everyone. 

Front-runner position

We have always been a front-runner when it comes to the dust-free handling of dry bulk materials, striving towards higher capacities and higher efficiencies as well as handling larger vessels. 

I hope that digitalization will help maintain this position and enable us to create even better machines, improve their efficiency and availability for the customer and develop and educate our personnel so that we can use the advantages that it offers more widely. 

I think that the most significant opportunities and challenges for the industry in the future will be related to this. Future development work will see our technology becoming more automated and less dependent on operations people, along with greater development of predictive maintenance and component failure.

This and other development work will keep our ship unloading, ship loading and screw conveyor technology current and pace-setting; we never stop working to improve our products, and I believe that we are in a good position to harness the growth potential of digital technology, capitalizing on its benefits, and making our products even more efficient.