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system made especially for countries in north-

ern Europe. ‘In such regions, the de-pollution

of fluids is often a problem because of vicious-

ly cold temperatures,’ he explains. ‘Just adding

a stronger pump won’t solve the problem. And

so, working closely together with our Scandi-

navian partner, we created a heating solution

for our pump system in order to improve and

safeguard the drainage process.’

Mr Dagn and his son Rainer, who was appointed

CEO in 2009, have expanded the company’s port-

folio with equipment such as the Hydraulic

Catalytic Converter Cutter, which was created to

ensure safe and efficient removal of valuable met-

als, as well as the windscreen cutter, cable shred-

der and T-REC XXL tyre separator. Meanwhile,

the most popular SEDA product to date is the

TankDrillingMachine. ‘With this tool, more than

30 million fuel tanks have already been drained

without any accidents,’ notes Mr Rieser.

Other innovations include the Automatic Freon

Gas and Refrigerator Compressor Oil Removal

Unit and the FuelManager, a device which

ensures that fuel extracted from ELVs is ‘as clean

and water-free as possible’. Such advances were

supported by SEDA’s own research and develop-

ment centre, aided by close collaboration with

car manufacturers and other industrial partners.

‘As a result of our co-operation with BMW, for

example, we managed to invent the first de-

pollution system for motorcycles,’ states

Mr Rieser. He goes on to cite other household

names – including Mercedes, Porsche, Audi,

Renault-Nissan and Ford – as brands which have

called on SEDA’s expertise.

Company transformation
Given its prominent position in this automotive

sector niche, Mr Dagn’s company has also been

embraced by numerous leading recycling enter-

prises, ranging from Automobile Recyclers

Netherlands (ARN), Kuusakoski and Stena from

Scandinavia, to Scholz AG of Germany and Sims

of the USA. “We experienced one of our mile-

stones so far in 2003, when SEDA equipped

nearly 250 dismantlers from ARN,” recounts Mr

Rieser. He notes that with this one step, the

Netherlands was crowned “the most fully devel-

oped ELV-recycling country in Europe.”

This point was ultimately reached by trans-

forming SEDA’s activities from simply produc-

ing and selling separate products to providing

and selling complete solutions made up of mul-

tiple products. ‘We don’t stand still,’ Mr Rieser

asserts. ‘Changing and evolving have enabled

us to offer our customers a huge variety of dif-

ferent, tailor-made solutions.’

From the company’s perspective, there is plen-

ty more still to come in terms of innovation.

‘We are keeping an eye on upcoming chal-

lenges and are planning to complete the devel-

opment of an LPG (Liquefied Petroleum Gas)

recovery solution and a car dismantling plat-

form over the course of the year,’ Mr Rieser

reveals. ‘Luckily, we have a long implementation

time for new technologies because new cars

take a long time to return to the recycling line.’

‘In the neighbourhood’
He adds that SEDA, which is headquartered at

Kössen in Austria, intends to stay focused on its

main product lines. Now that familiar markets

– especially Europe – are becoming increasingly

saturated, he believes there is value in further

modernising the 20-year-old equipment. If real-

ised, this goal will greatly benefit new branches

set up in other countries ‘in the neighbourhood’,

such as in Russia and Turkey, where there is a

determination to rival the ELV recycling stand-

ards set throughout most of Europe.

For more information, visit: www.seda.at/en

SEDA celebrates
20 years of ELV technology

The tailor made prototypes built by SEDA are tested with
dismantlers ‘under real conditions’.

SEDA ensures clean and sorted fractions of car fl uids.

Over 30 million fuel tanks have been drained using SEDA equipment.

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