ENGLISH TRANSLATION:
Prestige order for the screw factory: “Going extremely well”
26 November 2023 12:00 Half a billion in turnover within three years. That is the goal of BUMAX in Åshammar. After a corona dip and redundancies, the screw manufacturer has recovered significantly – and received another prestigious order.
The factory specializes in screws, bolts and fasteners that must withstand extreme stress. BUMAX products are used, among other things, in wind turbines, oil platforms and submarines.
The customer catalog includes, for example, Siemens, Thyssenkrupp, the particle physics laboratory Cern and the international space station ISS.
Recently, the company received another order that stands out. A university in the Netherlands that is doing tests before building the Einstein telescope has ordered bolts, washers and nuts from Bumax.
The underground facility, which is expected to be completed in 2035, will be used to observe gravitational waves. The studies will hopefully provide more knowledge about black holes and the universe shortly after the Big Bang.
To minimize vibrations, the measuring equipment must be in a vacuum. In addition, there are plans to cool the telescope’s mirrors down to minus 265 degrees Celsius.
This is one of the reasons why BUMAX has been commissioned to supply fasteners.
“We make solutions for critical applications, so they choose us because of the quality. The bolts must absolutely not break,” says Lars Holm, CEO of Bumax.
In 2019, the company had 60 employees and a turnover of SEK 156 million. The following year, sales plummeted due to the pandemic and eleven people lost their jobs.
Then the curves point upwards again. Last year, a turnover of SEK 213 million was reported and today around 70 people work in the company, of which around 60 in the factory in Åshammar outside Sandviken.
“A large part of our products go towards the defense industry and the space industry, so considering the geopolitically uncertain situation in the world, it is going extremely well,” says Lars Holm.
The Einstein telescope is a prestigious project, he believes. In addition, the company has received a number of other exciting assignments that he cannot yet name.
“There is a lot happening at BUMAX right now. We are building to turn over half a billion kroner in three years. So the future looks bright,” says Lars Holm.