European success in Alsózsolca, Hungary

The SW Umwelttechnik Magyarország Kft. is a subsidiary of SW Umwelttechnik Stoiser & Wolschner AG (Austria, Klagenfurt). The Austrian company was founded as a family business in 1910. Nowadays, it has 9 premises in Hungary, Austria and Romania. Based on the quantity of placed concrete SW Umwelttechnik Magyarország Kft. is the biggest manufacturer of concrete units in Hungary, whose legal predecessors have been manufacturing concrete, reinforced concrete and prestressed concrete units for more than 50 years. The production plants operate in Alsózsolca, Bodrogkisfalud and Majosháza, and also the company seat is in the latter locality. The company provides its customers with high-quality and innovative concrete products in five branches of the construction industry: construction works, residential construction, traffic engineering, water draining and building electrical networks.

In accordance with the concept of the call for tenders “Support for the R+D activities of companies” SW Umwelttechnik Magyarország Kft. began developing a revolutionary new group of products, the paving that can be equipped with electronic armatures or other information technological components in 2015 – with the purpose of developing a technology that has considerable added value in Hungary, in the EU countries and also on the wider international platform, is currently not in production, and fulfils the requirements of usability and environmental sustainability, and selling it on its premises in Alsózsolca.

It is the ambition of sophisticated architecture that a certain space is not only used every day but also provides an aesthetic spatial experience. In order to produce additional functional and aesthetic effects, different installation units need to be built-in. The newly designed products of SW Umwelttechnik Magyarország Kft. have variously designed internal installation cavities, which the building contractors will provide with functioning components based on the plans of designers, architects, garden and spatial designers.

The product created within the context of the market-oriented research development project allows for the easy integration of new technologies, which are unrelated to the concrete industry for a wide range of applications, this involves gaining and improving the knowledge necessary for the production and developing technologies and prototypes. The paving stone can be manufactured with an optional aesthetic appearance, all kinds of tools, devices, electrical parts can be integrated into it in series, and its production is fully automated. These products make the conquest of new European markets possible.

Large number of innovations

The results of the research and examinations conducted during the project can be used in practice as well; they contain a large number of innovations. As an inseparable part of this development, a domestic patent with the title “Permanent shell core for the creation of an internal cavity in vibrated-pressed concrete bodies” has been registered as well as a utility model protection in several EU countries.

The instruments of the industrial investment with a value of more than 3 billion HUF (8.5 million EURO) have been procured in the framework of a public procurement of the European Union, but the production hall that provides place for the almost fully automated technology has been built in the framework of a national public procurement procedure. The investment was partly financed according to the GINOP211 tendering scheme. The SW Umwelttechnik Magyarország Kft. has concluded 7 public procurement contracts in total to realize the investment. The comprehensive investment of the company involves – among other things – the building of a complete concrete factory with 3,200 m² large production hall for concrete blocks as well as feeding and mixing technology, the creation of a world-class, mostly automated production line for the manufacture of concrete blocks with the procurement of customized automatic feeding and mixing equipment: building a high-performance mixer for core concrete and wearing course, a silo system, a gravel loading system, all from MCT Italy S.r.l. Other parts of the project are the related block production technologies and a curing chamber as well as packaging machines suitable for the strapping and foiling of concrete products and also the creation of a passage for trucks. The production has completely been integrated into the SAP business management system.

In such investment, the concrete production facility is of paramount importance for the factory performances and ultimately for the project success. The long experience together with the design flexibility of MCT Italy played a decisive role in the project development to ensure the right solution and the proper integration of all the components within the project specifications.

From the early stages to the factory commissioning, the expertise of MCT engineers provided the whole project the value required for its timely achievement. Particular importance on the project design and development have the aggregates loading system, the aggregates storage and dosing, and the mixing structure and platforms.

The batching facility is fully integrated in the factory design and layout, with its structures in a combination of concrete and steel and a common cladding enclosure, seamless with the rest of the factory.

The aggregates section is mainly made out of concrete, with supporting structures and aggregates compartments duly designed for the integration of the steel components for the aggregates automated loading and dosing. The synergy of the engineering departments at SW and MCT is evident from the successful integration of these systems.

Professional experience and long-standing relationships

The mixing tower has been designed to be fully integrated in the factory building, as well as for the safest and most comfortable use and maintenance of the machinery dedicated to the concrete production and transportation to the other manufacturing sections of the factory, with large platforms and proper fire rating required by the project specifications. Concrete quality performances are ensured by the dosing of chemical admixtures and pigments, all engineered in the MCT systems, together with binder storage and conveying.

“We at MCT are very proud of being part of this project with SW, where the challenges of management and engineering become innovation tasks, and we always feel like working in a really experienced team, which efficiency was ensured by the coordination of our Hungarian colleagues headed by Eng. István Fejes (from FACT-Plus Kereskedelmi és Szolgáltató Kft.),” states MCT Area Manager Eng. Alessandro DiCesare. “It’s also a great source of satisfaction and growth to participate in such European development projects, which we are always keen to support.”

“We were honored to be able and put our professional experience and long-standing relationships at the service of such an innovative project,” added István Fejes.

On 26 September 2019, the factory officially opened its operation. With more than 130 guests the handover celebration of the plant was held with the presence of:

Minister of the Prime Minister’s Office: Gergely Gulyás;

Member of the National Assembly: Katalin Csöbör;

Austrian Ambassador in Hungary: Elisabeth Ellison-Kramer.

“The plant extension in Alsózsolca is a pioneering step for our company, which secures the location for decades. With the additional state-of-the-art production, this will allow us to further strengthen our market position in Hungary and shorten our transport routes facility, we have created 25 new jobs in the region,” explains Klaus Einfalt, Member of the Board of SW Umwelttechnik.

The investment took four years in total from writing the tender via the planning and public procurement through to the construction works. The manufacturing of the new product group opens up new markets for the Austrian-owned company. The development may bring an annual turnover of two billion HUF (5.5 million Euro), and the creation of new jobs contributes significantly to the economic recovery of the underdeveloped Eastern Hungarian region.