Sicon honored for EcoScan product

The EcoScan Online bulk scrap scanner introduced by Hilchenbach, Germany-based Sicon GmbH has been awarded a German Excellence Prize for outstanding achievements in business.

The award was presented Jan. 23 to Sicon Managing Director Heiner Guschall in Berlin at a function Sicon describes as a “gala [that] brought together successful managers, start-up founders, digital experts and creative people from a wide range of industries.”

The German Institute for Service Quality, DUB Unternehmer magazine and news channel N-TV selected 46 award winners in 23 categories.  The jury honored the EcoScan Online for its “innovative power and technical excellence,” according to Sicon.

Sicon describes the EcoScan as an “X-ray based scrap analyzer” and a “digital link between the scrap industry and the steel industry.” It uses X-ray technology to analyze ferrous scrap after processing and before it is melted at an electric arc furnace (EAF) steel mill. The EcoScan analyzes the scrap’s composition and quality parameters. “The data obtained in this process can be given to the steelworks in the form of a certificate or transmitted digitally, so that the steelworks can react directly to quality fluctuations and know the composition before the melt occurs,” says Sicon.

“Small to medium enterprises in Germany make a very important contribution to the German economy,” Guschall stated in his acceptance remarks. “Together with our partner Bruker, we have created a particularly innovative product in this area, thus optimally combining the competencies of both companies. For the Sicon team, this award is an incentive to continue developing great innovations with the best partners in the future.” Billerica, Massachusetts-based Bruker Corp. designs and makes instruments for materials analysis tasks.

Sicon describes itself as a plant engineering company with a focus on solutions for optimizing the use of scrap in the steel industry.