MFN had the opportunity to talk to Mr. Franci Jezeršek, Managing Director of Siapro d.o.o. The company's strengths are knowledge and appropriate use of new technologies in shotblasting/shotpeening/mechanical pickling/descaling.

(?) MFN: Mr. Jezeršek, you are the managing director of the company SIAPRO that is increasingly going global as an innovator in shot blasting applications. Could you please quickly introduce the company SIAPRO to our readers?

(!) F. J.: We are manufacturers of industrial equipment and we have been present on the market for more than 20 years. Our solutions are used in foundries, in steel industry, in productions that require blasting and surface cleaning and in treatment of metals and similar industry. Our market is worldwide. We have had numerous reference projects till now. They are a reflection of many years of work and of confidence in our services and products.

(?) MFN: What are your main products on the market?

(!) F. J.: Siapro manufactures machines for shot blasting, shot peening and also our latest equipment specialty developed in the last 3 years, machines for dry pickling on continuous coil and push pull lines in steelworks. Secondly, together with our long-term cooperation partners, we offer foundry equipment for the entire production in foundries. In the last 4 years, we have again started developing our new division of Siapro - hydro, so we are also more involved in manufacturing hydro power plant turbines. Actually, the company is developing into a Siapro Group with two main branches. All this equipment can be offered as Turn Key Solutions.

(?) MFN: Could you explain more about your engineering and turnkey solutions?

(!) F. J.: Our staff has many years of experience as "user" of the products that Siapro is producing now (many of our team people were employees in these productions). From this point of view, we have many skills and much experience from practice and the company can be very flexible. The company provides base research and testing for new potential customers or applications, engineering services that range from basic advising, engineering advising, machine equipment designing, manufacturing of the equipment, servicing and the final commissioning of the equipment in the industry.

(?) MFN: You mentioned partners, so you don't work alone, does Siapro have strategic partners?

(!) F. J.: For our customers it is important to know that we offer some solutions together with our strategic or long-term cooperation partners. This is mostly equipment for foundries, except for the equipment for shot blasting. So if it is needed, our customers are supported and advised by an international team of consultants, engineers and technologists. Our partners come from Germany, England, Belgium, the USA and Russia. In the field of surface cleaning-shot blasting and dry pickling we are the leading partner. For selling, we have sales agents, but this is more or less a matter of our sales strategies.

(?) MFN: What do you think about new technologies in your business?

(!) F. J.: The company's main role is to support our customers on a long-term basis with a more economical and eco-friendly technology. Short-term cooperation and making quick profits are not our priorities. Today, you have to be a consultant and a technology partner for the customers. They require a lot of knowledge, experience from practice and newly developed solutions. Some of our solutions are the best in our field and market segment.

(?) MFN: To which industrial branches do you offer your solutions for shot blasting?

(!) F. J.: We offer our solutions to customers with demanding productions and to those with a more standard type of production. Our shot-blasting machines are used in foundry industries, productions of all kinds of steel constructions, plate mills, coils mills, boilers and tanks, railway industry, aeronautic industry, marine industry, productions of pipes, automotive industry, tool industry, forging industry, iron works and iron mills, production of springs, in shot peening, thermal treating industry and surface protection industry.

(?) MFN: Is there a Siapro sales program you would especially like to emphasize today?

(!) F. J.: Yes, we would like to emphasize that we can find unique solutions for our customers in the most sensitive areas of shot blasting as well. So we would like to emphasize our shot-blasting solutions for demanding customers in complex industry. Of course, we also manufacture standard equipment; this is equipment for the more or less traditional industry. In addition, the standard equipment you need to have for the not-so-complex productions. To these customers, we can offer also equipment on stock. This is our quick delivery equipment, which is standardized and can be delivered at a special price for the same quality.

(?) MFN: Could you tell us more about your shot-blasting machines on stock?

(!) F. J.: This marketing approach has been running for 3 years now. This equipment is made with the same procedures as all our other equipment. But it is standardized and for this reason it has a very competitive price. We offer: Table shot-blasting machines - DA 1250, Shot-blasting Machines with a hook Ha 1000x1500 and Drum Shot-blasting TRA210. We also rent these machines.

(?) MFN: Do you think Siapro stands out in shot-blasting technology, for example you also offer equipment for shot blasting with a robot and a unique technology for dry pickling?

(!) F. J.: Certainly. We offer standard and special custom-made shot-blasting solutions and shot blasting with robots. Nevertheless, this is done in some other companies as well. What is more important and unique for our company is that since 2014, Siapro can also offer equipment for eco dry pickling of coil steel strip. This is a really revolutionary approach.

(?) MFN: This is very interesting. Could you please tell us more about this unique Siapro equipment for mechanical pickling developed in 2015?

(!) F. J.: In 2015 we successfully finished the order that lasted for the last two years. We now have a line for ECO-DRY pickling in operation. This system is completely acid-free. Eco dry pickling is a unique technology at the moment; it has already successfully worked in steelworks since May 2015. With this ECO-friendly technology we succeeded to completely avoid the use of any chemicals in the process and achieved the target quality and process speed. With our E-ECO CPMT system (Complete Process Monitoring Technology - parameters) and technology with the AAD system (PID automatic-abrasive dosing) we can control any parameter at any time in the process and ensure equal quality with different materials and procedures.
With our E-ECO CPMT blasting technology, we can reach surface roughness of 3-8 microns and surface cleanliness SA3. We use continuous process monitoring technology to control speed from 0-60m/min. We are using E-ECO turbines with up to 110 kW at the moment. We also have E-ECO-S 780 - 250 kw turbines in development, which have already passed the prototype test. With these units, we are targeting a working speed of 100m/min and more. Actually, the development of this equipment has lasted for the last five years and still continues with new challenges, especially in the field of dry pickling.

(?) MFN: What are the benefits that give your company special credibility?

(!) F. J.: We think that our benefits result from our advanced technical solutions and our general approach to be open to new developments and work hand-in-hand with our customers. E-ECO blasting technology with E-ECO generations of shot-blasting turbines, for example, has now been in operation for four years and the results are great. This can also be confirmed by our customers, who come back to us and order new machines. We have a customer, for example, who ordered 5 machines in three years.

(?) MFN: Why is your E-ECO blasting technology different from the other systems on the market at the moment?

(!) F. J.: Siapro Turbine E-ECO has a great solution for economy optimization - modules upgrades. E-ECO turbines can be upgraded, for example, with AAD automatic abrasive dosing or with the CMPT system, depending on the customer's demands. Secondly, we use two types of E-ECO Turbines for all productions. Thirdly, our E-ECO blasting technology can be used for shot blasting, shot peening, dry pickling or descaling.

(?) MFN: Who can use the E-ECO technology, just your new customers?

(!) F. J.: Definitely not. For E-ECO shot-blasting turbines we offer technical consulting and built-in equipment from different machine producers. Actually, these solutions and E-ECO turbines can fit all machines from different producers. But Siapro technology also offers unique solutions at the same time.

(?) MFN: Can you explain more about the Siapro E-ECO CPMT shot-blasting technology, what exactly is the complete process monitoring?

(!) F. J.: The latest E-ECO Superior Turbine and AAD Automatic Abrasive Dosing are integrated into a Complete Process Monitoring Technology (CPMT). It is important to know that we are constantly developing new generations of E-ECO wheels and electronic systems with long distance control that support these wheels and are able to connect with the production information system of different customers. We started with E-ECO Superior Turbines in 2013, and now we have E-ECO CPMT turbines in production and E-ECO-S Turbines in development. E-ECO-S will be the third generation of E-ECO Turbines. The turbines are supported with AAD automatic abrasive dosing. Now we already have AAD V6 in development, but we started at AAD V0. We are constantly developing the system to be more rational and user-friendly.

(?) MFN: Why is your technology called E-ECO?

(!) F. J.: With this name, we would like to stress Extra Economy Controlled, Extra Ecology, Extra Energy Savings and Extra Efficiency for the customers. In fact, it has been proven by the customers' feedback that customers can, for example:
• cover all their production with 2 type E-ECO wheels - and reduce costs for spare parts by 35-60%;
• reduce maintenance time by 50-70%;
• reduce stops in continuous lines by more than 50%; and
• reduce the stock of spares by more than 50%.

(?) MFN: Why can customers benefit from using Turbines with the E-ECO CPMT complete process monitoring technology - why do you call this technology revolutionary?

(!) F. J.: Siapro turbines can fulfill the highest demands in Shot blasting/Shot peening/Mechanical Pickling/Descaling. As we already explained, the latest E-ECO Superior Wheel and AAD Automatic abrasive dosing are integrated into a Complete Process Monitoring. We combined Siapro Software development & Turbine E-ECO Superior innovative design. The system can also be used for special applications: Heavy Duty Applications, Steel Works & Metal Coil Strips Cleaning. For easier monitoring, we have an Advanced PID regulation. This is certainly the fastest option to communicate with the machine.

(?) MFN: Do you believe that Siapro can become one of the important leaders in the shot-blasting industry?

(!) F. J.: Regarding our technological solutions, we think that we already are among the most important leaders in shot-blasting technologies. Of course, there is always the marketing point of view as well. With this, we have in mind that the perception of being a leader comes from other aspects as well, such as how much the company is involved in the marketing and advertising activities. And as you can see, we have not involved Siapro so much in these activities till know. At the moment, we are so well prepared to increase our production capacities that we can also invest much more in the marketing. However, we still think that the best marketing comes from our customers, from our good references.

(?) MFN: Why should the investor choose you over any other company?

(!) F. J.: If the investor wants to have a long-term partner, a partner who is reliable also when it comes to thinking how to improve the economical part and reach new inventive solutions for the most demanding challenges in surface treatment, then we are the right partner. Furthermore, we have also high quality standardized equipment at a reasonable price.

(?) MFN: What can you say to your potential customers who are searching for shot-blasting equipment?

(!) F. J.: We invite them to contact us, so we can explain more about our equipment and references or give them advice about rational solutions. Finally, we invite them to visit and view our direct solutions in different productions.

MFN would like to thank Franci Jezeršek for this interview!

For Information:
Siapro d.o.o.
Postaja 9, SI-5216 Most na Soci, Slovenia
Tel. +386.5.3841 632
E-mail: info@siapro.si
www.siapro.eu