Towards a better year
In the year 2019 our company made its history’s biggest investment which would increase our reclamation capacity at our Nuutajärvi plant. Our goal was to more efficiently serve our Finnish customers.
Unfortunately the initialization of the new production line was delayed for about six months, which put our company in a really tight spot financially. At the start of 2020 we tried to rush the ramp up as the new production line would allow us to serve new customers and also quadruple our output.
Production with the new equipment was started in late February. Our expectations were big as we wanted to start our co-operation with our new customers as well as possible – as quickly as possible.However in the spring the world stopped. Companies shifted their work to home offices. As we were not able to test our product at our new customers’ facilities before the pandemic hit, we could not start commercial deliveries.
Another six months passed.
During this time we applied and got a 100 000€ R&D grant.
An idea of a modular sand reclaimer unit was born. The unit would be operated at a foundry’s facilities so there would not be a need to transport the sand back and forth. We wanted to capitalize our knowledge of the sand reclamation process so we basically copied the thermal process of our plant to a compact unit which could take care of a single foundry’s sand needs.
In the late summer and early spring we could start deliveries to those customers which had been delayed due to the pandemic situation. At the end of the year about third of Finnish foundries were using our reclaimed sand, FinnSand
2021
This year…
The first modular reclamation units for us and our customers should be ready during the spring. Deliveries of reclaimed sand to the building material industry should also start during the spring as well as the deliveries of fluidized bed sands for Finnish power plants.
As international trade will be a cornerstone of our plans for the new year, we have started to build up our international sales force. Our near term goal will be able to serve customers in Europe and other countries with major foundry industry presence.
In the year 2021 we will continue our sand recycling research together with our customers and Aalto University.
We look forward to fulfilling our goals for the year 2021.
We wish you a safe and successful new year!
Toni Wesin