HISTORY

After the company premises of STEINERT Latin America fell victim to a devastating fire, the new office and production building was officially opened in late summer 2023.

On September 22nd, 2020, STEINERT again demonstrates the way forward. STEINERT opens its Test and Development Center in Pulheim, just 4 miles as the crow flies from the company’s headquarters in Cologne.

The impressive figures speak for themselves; While STEINERT welcomed over 500 visitors a year to its old test centre, at around 38,000 sq ft, the new site has almost three times the space. The new test facility has 984 feet of conveyor belt and more than 35 highly-skilled staff that work on the 3 separate sorting lines for metal recycling, waste recycling and mining, delivering technical innovations and highly efficient test procedures. 

As part of their visits and material tests, customers can now benefit from the most recent developments to an even greater extent and see the entire range of applications for themselves: from magnetic separators to sensor-based sorting systems, such as X-ray transmission, X-ray fluorescence and near-infrared.

By launching the UniSort BlackEye, STEINERT once again demonstrates its pioneering spirit in the development of leading technologies. The sensor-based sorting system does not only separate plastics by colour, but also by polymer class (PE, PP, PVC and styrene). The UniSort BlackEye can therefore correctly separate black plastics by plastic type. One feature of particular interest in terms of rates of recycling is the ability to distinguish between PE and PP. Since most packaging comprises PE and PP, they can be accurately captured in sorting facilities. A large proportion of black polyolefins is also used in the automotive sector.

By founding STEINERT Latinoamericana, STEINERT establishes a third subsidiary within the network of affiliated companies and demonstrates its commitment to Central and South America. Locating the new company close to customers and market activities enables excellent service and support in Central and South America too. Based in the Castelo district of Belo Horizonte in Minas Gerais, STEINERT is strategically positioned in a zone of importance to the mining industry. Going forward, the mining and recycling industries will be able to benefit from services, commissioning work, maintenance and training courses from colleagues in their own country.

Huge demand on the North American market resulted in the founding of STEINERT US Ltd. in St. Petersburg, Florida. North American customers are quickly able to benefit from the well-developed infrastructure. The local team now delivers service and maintenance work on site much faster and more directly. STEINERT US also produces individual magnetic separators itself on site. The market responds to these moves by placing even more orders. Close proximity to customers and the great service team have proven to be huge factors for success in the USA.

The new millennium starts with a new generation and expansion of research and development. The next few years will not only see new but also unique sorting systems appear on the market. New subsidiaries and sales partnerships also reinforce STEINERT’s global presence. 

Advances made in sensors and data processing enable the development of colour sorting systems and the STEINERT ISS® induction sorting system. Both technologies aim to further increase yield and purity in metal recycling. In parallel to this, new markets open up in RDF treatment, wood treatment and plastic recycling.

STEINERT presents the first eccentric non-ferrous metals separator. This eddy current separator (also known as ECS or eddy) is used to recover non-ferrous metals, such as aluminium, copper or brass. The patented, eccentric pole system ensures that the magnetic field's influence is only at its highest at the moment of separation and a field is not generated at other points in the belt drum. Today, non-ferrous metals separators form the commercial basis of any recycling, and more than 5000 of STEINERT’s separators alone are deployed worldwide in sorting and processing facilities.

Following years of reconstruction, STEINERT quickly writes the next chapter of its success story. In 1963, the company presents the prototype of a new range of lifting magnets on its own stand at a trade fair in Hanover. Benefits include its low weight, greater magnetic power and low price. At the same time, waste treatment and recycling gain in importance. Dwindling resources, calls for environmental protection and an explosion in costs on the raw materials market make new technologies necessary. STEINERT rises to these challenges with immense passion and develops new products.

In 1931, Julius Christian Buchholz buys the company. The birth of the Metalloxyd holding company contributes to the expansion of the market position. STEINERT and the Metalloxyd holding company are a perfect match for one another. One of the first major results of the merger is the breakthrough in anodic oxidation. During the Second World War, most of the premises in Cologne are destroyed. But management and the workforce reconstruct the company and extend the product range. STEINERT becomes established on the international market.

In 1889, Ferdinand Steinert founds “Ferdinand STEINERT Elektromagnetische Aufbereitungsanlagen” in Cologne. The new company initially works in small structures, but the market for the use of separation magnets is huge. While we have been aware of the phenomenon of magnetism since the eleventh century, it has so far been put to very little economic use.

The steel industry is one of the company's first customers. The design engineer Ferdinand Steinert develops magnets, which are used to recover iron from steel slag and steel waste, and from waste in foundries and iron works. It’s an effective procedure, which soon becomes more widespread as it becomes possible to separate coal from slag too. This further technical refinement is of great interest to the state railways, for example, which become a major client of STEINERT.