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Bruks-Siwertell
Bruks-Siwertell
Managing Director and President of Bruks Siwertell AB, could not be prouder of the company, its personnel and technology; he has held various positions over three decades, starting in 1994 as a product manager for mobile ship unloaders.
We all use our experiences, backgrounds and education to inform our decision making. Military service as a paratrooper taught me the importance of teamwork; nothing is stronger than the weakest link, and a team’s ability is always larger than the sum of its individuals. A university degree in industrial engineering and management has given me analytical strengths, and competing in individual sports, such as sailing and golf when growing up, has taught me to trust in my own abilities.
The combination of these gave me a solid platform from which to grow, along with the influence of ‘good’ leaders at the start of my professional career. All have proved their worth when changing screw conveyors in the jungle, unloading ships in the middle of the night, as well as negotiating challenging multimillion-dollar contracts.
I have so many ‘Siwertell’ stories to tell, spanning just about every aspect of Bruks Siwertell. However, my most prominent memory is not a single story, but one of gratitude. I was given the opportunity, and great responsibility to grow and work, with almost complete freedom, to develop our mobile ship unloaders as a strategic business area. This involved building up production and forming a team around specific competences and talented individuals. To date, this is probably my greatest long-term effecting challenge and achievement.
Working with a good team with relevant experience is an absolute key for success. We carry out large, complex and complicated infrastructure projects requiring knowledge and experience from many people with different fields of expertise. This enables us to look at challenges from different perspectives. Developing a leading dry bulk handling product or service, or completing a complex port terminal project, requires multifaceted competences, and the ability to look at things from every angle to find the best solution.
A lot has happened over the past five decades. Volumes have increased and with that, so have vessel sizes. Fifty years ago, a Handymax-sixed vessel was large, at around 50,000 dwt, twenty-five years ago Panamax vessels, up to 80,000 dwt were standard, and we now have new Panamax at 120,000 dwt. Today, we see a lot of dry bulk materials shipped in Capsize vessels, up to around 170,000 dwt.
With these increases in vessel size, higher ship unloading and ship loading capacities were and are required, together with demands for higher efficiency, increased reliability and improved availability.
From an outsider’s glance, Siwertell ship unloaders look pretty much the same as they did fifty years ago. The key screw ship unloader principal remains unchanged, and the ‘Siwertell excellence’ is still predominantly derived from the originally patented, counter-rotating inlet feeder. This is central to ensuring efficient cargo pick up and a high filling rate of the vertical screw conveyor.
Because of this technology, our ship unloaders deliver their commercial benefits. Inlet feeders can withstand significant digging forces, break-up compacted material and reach high unloading efficiencies. They pick up material under the cargo’s surface minimizing dust emissions, unloading layer-by-layer and avoiding cargo avalanches, therefore, providing a safe operation with limited dust emissions in the cargo hold. This ability is maintained all the way through to the tank top, which limits the use of payloaders at final clean up.
Over the years, we have continuously developed the concept, including the recent introduction of a new inlet feeder design for our large-scale ship unloaders, which delivers even higher through-ship efficiencies. I can proudly state that we consider ourselves market leaders in continuous ship unloaders for the majority of dry bulk commodities. Our Siwertell systems are incredibly robust, yet smaller and lower in weight than any other equivalent capacity unloader on the market.
In terms of other advances, we have developed the outer diameter (OD) bearing and introduced new materials for our screw conveyors; all are designed to improve service lifetimes, reduce power consumption, and improve our customers’ operational performance.
The Siwertell Sulfur Safety System (4S) is also a significant development. It was originally intended for safe sulfur handling, and has now been adapted to accommodate the enclosed conveying of other hazardous, and potentially self-igniting dry bulk materials, such as biomass wood pellets.
As for the future, digitalization will probably provide the most opportunity and present the greatest challenge. The dry bulk industry as a whole is not necessarily at the forefront of digitalization but digital features, which could currently be viewed as a ‘gadget’, are likely to be pivotal for industry leadership and survival going forward.
Bruks Siwertell strives to be market leading in developing digital solutions for the dry bulk handling industry. Data collection, data analysis, with machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI)-driven solutions, are not a distant dream any longer. I feel confident that the dry bulk industry will move towards autonomous operation, troubleshooting and maintenance, with the automatic replenishment of spare parts, for example.
We are already working on launching remotely operated ship unloaders and ship loaders. This will be followed by autonomously operated machines and ultimately a synchronized autonomous operation with a combination of Siwertell technology and payloaders, absolutely minimizing environmental impact and providing highly efficient, safe, and healthy operations.
Other significant changes are environmental. Over the last couple of decades, we have seen an increase in focus on environmentally responsible dry bulk handling. These include reduced power consumption, reduced utilization of resources, such as steel, requiring lower weight constructions, and even tighter restrictions around dust and spillage within the port.
Investing in a Siwertell ship unloader is the most cost-efficient and environmentally responsible choice that an operator can make for its dry bulk handling needs. Long lifetimes, low operational costs and equipment weights, high nominal ship unloading capacity, and unparalleled ship unloading efficiency, along with low noise levels, minimal dust and no spillage, make our dry bulk handling machines outstanding from an operational, environmental and health and safety perspective.
Our sustainability work builds on the environmental credentials of our technology. The sustainability targets that we have set are of course extremely important, not only for Bruks Siwertell, but also for the world, society and more so, for generations to come. In relative terms, the easiest targets are the ones we own ourselves: zero waste; 100 percent renewable energy; 100 percent compliance with Codes of Conduct; and 100 percent updated work processes.
We are already well ahead with many of these, for example, with work processes, Codes of Conduct compliance and renewable energy sources. We intend to install solar panels on the workshop roof to further improve our carbon footprint and reduce CO2 emissions.
Siwertell technology will keep pace with the industry’s changing landscape and continue to set the standard in dry bulk material handling. Our history already proves this capability. Early on, we led the bulk cement market and soon became industry standard; a position that we still hold.
As the world’s energy requirements grew and burning coal became the standard solution, Siwertell ship unloading technology was improved and enhanced to meet these market demands as well. We now offer high-capacity, enclosed biomass pellet handling, helping operators to switch from coal to renewable energy sources. It is fair to say that Siwertell ship unloading technology has revolutionized dry bulk handling operations, and my belief is that it will continue to do so.