SecondTech

Recycling industrial parts

Giving industrial parts a second life, that’s what SecondTech does. The business is currently developing an E-test lane that can be used by multiple parties and offers educational opportunities. Owner Manfred Kugel: ‘We want to provide added value. To products and to people.’

The circular company SecondTech give industrial parts that are not ready for the scrap heap a second life. Often these are parts that have a long lifespan, such as pumps and electrical motors. ‘Some of these parts are used, but sometimes they are brand-new,’ Kugel says. SecondTech provides two services. ‘Businesses can order parts with us, but they can also ask us to clean up their warehouse. Anyone who uses our services contributes to a circular economy, streamlines their business, and earns money in the process. The purchasing party saves money by buying a cheaper product and contributes to reducing the carbon footprint because the part does not have to be made from scratch. We like to bring supply and demand together, and we charge a small commission fee to do so.’

Worldwide

‘In early 2018, Bart Steens and I started SecondTech, thinking we were going to do business in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany,’ Kugel says. Together with Jacob Brobbel and Trix Schipper-Hop, he manages the Switzal hotspot complex in Apeldoorn. ‘Our first order came from Spain, the second from Italy, and today we also conduct business in the Netherlands. The language of technology seems to be a universal one, so the entire world became our marketplace instead of just Europe.’ COVID-19 has certainly helped that along. ‘We got off to a tentative start in 2018; last year, we had 400,000 visitors on our website. This year, we already have 1.7 million hits. That is in part due to the coronavirus crisis. Apparently, customers have the time and motivation to re-use industrial parts.’

Adding value

All the parts that end up at SecondTech are tested before starting their new life. ‘We investigate whether the condition of the part is good enough to be re-used. If that’s not the case, we see whether it’s worth the effort to clean or repair the part. Our parts come with a guarantee, giving the product added value, but it needs to be cost-effective. It is fascinating to see where some parts end up. For example, at one point, we posted a conductivity meter online, completely vintage and valued at not much more than a couple of dozen euros. We received a call from a large steel corporation that wanted to immediately send a courier for that specific part. Apparently, part of the factory had been offline for a while because the part was no longer available anywhere else. How great is that?’