On the left, the founder of UW-ELAST Uno Widström together with current CEO Henrik Jungert.
The History of UW-ELAST
Some may wonder what UW-ELAST in Mariestad stands for and what it does. The explanation is the undersigned’s initials, Uno Widström, followed by ELAST, which is a collective term for materials that return to their original form after being unloaded.
The material that UW-ELAST started with was originally developed by DuPont and launched under the name Adiprene.
During a long stay in the USA, I had already read about Adiprene in a technical magazine in the 1960s. Since I grew up in the sheet metal industry with perforation and bending, I was excited about the material and thought it would be excellent in the factory back home.
However, my stay in the USA took a different direction when, thanks to my great hobby of filming, I became involved in a large educational project for school films in physics and chemistry for Encyclopedia Britannica. This meant an additional two years in the USA, in Pittsburgh and in Gainesville, Florida.
This resulted in many flights back and forth across the Atlantic. Once back home in Sweden, I started my own business in the perforation industry, Perfoverken. The location was Finnerödja in Västergötland, and seven years later we moved the entire operation to Mariestad.
As a special division within Perfoverken, we established development and sales of Adiprene, which began to gain ground in a number of mechanical industries in Sweden. The initial contact started with ASEA Atom, where I collaborated in building a special bending and forming tool with Adiprene components. The tool was to be used to form sheet metal casings of zirconium to enclose fuel rods in a nuclear reactor.
In the early 1970s, contact with ASEA in Västerås deepened, and thus began a real development of Adiprene material as a tool component in sheet metal processing.
We still imported all Adiprene material from the USA, but around 1975 the picture and direction of the business changed when ASEA’s Quintus division came into the picture. The Quintus division developed press and forming membranes manufactured for ASEA’s Quintus presses, which existed and still exist in most aviation industries worldwide and also at some automobile manufacturers.
This meant large casting volumes. Therefore, we agreed with ASEA to start our own production at UW-ELAST AB in Mariestad to be able to handle the delivery volumes.
No sooner said than done—now there were quick trips to the aviation industry Lockheed Martin Corp outside Los Angeles, where ASEA had a division for membranes for pressing and forming Adiprene. In addition, we made extensive visits to northern California, where the manufacturer of casting machines for polyurethane was located. Casting equipment and the entire machine installation were delivered just under a year later to Mariestad, and so it all got started properly in 1975!
Thus, UW-ELAST had its own production in an expanding company with good employees who all contributed to a constantly growing product range in elastomers: Polyurethane from UW-ELAST!
But now we enter the present and future—that will be another flexible story!
Uno Widström,
Founder
History, a Summary
UW-ELAST AB was founded in 1975 by Uno Widström (Uno Widström – Elastomeric Materials) after having been a division within Perfoverken in Mariestad since 1968. The material that was so unique that it became its own business was called polyurethane and originally came from DU PONT.
Initially, production was completely dominated by membranes for ASEA’s Quintus Press for sheet metal forming. Over the years, the number of products and applications increased with coating of rollers, cyclones, wheels, and clubs.
A major effort began to take shape in the mid-1990s, resulting in certification of the Quality System according to ISO 9001 in 1996. Later that same year, UW-ELAST AB was acquired by Garpco AB.
In 1996, certification of the Quality System according to ISO 9001 was completed.
In 1999, certification of the Environmental System according to ISO 14001 was completed.
In 2000, Industripolyuretan AB in Mariestad was acquired with a turnover of just over 14M with 10 employees. Through this acquisition, the business was broadened with production methods beyond traditional mold casting. So-called “Ribbon-Flow” for polyurethane coating of large industrial rollers, spray coating of polyurethane, and injection molding of TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane).
In 2004, another company that sprayed polyurethane, Interpur AB, was acquired. The company operated in Mariestad and was integrated into our own premises.
In 2007, Trekollan AB in Traryd was acquired with a turnover of 22M with 20 employees. Through this acquisition, we gained access to produce Vulkollan® through a license from BaySystems® as well as the proprietary brand Trekollan®. The company Trekollan AB was founded in 1993 but has its roots in the Trelleborg Group. At the turn of 2010/11, Trekollan AB was integrated into UW-ELAST AB, and today the operations in Traryd are run as a pure production unit.
In 2012, Gotlands Gummifabrik, which has a long tradition of manufacturing rubber and rubber products, was acquired. Shortly after the takeover, in August 2012, Jimmy Hofacker assumed the position of CEO.
In 2017, early in January, the acquisition of the company TM Rubber SP, which manufactures products from silicone and rubber, was completed. The majority of production involves contract manufacturing. TM Rubber SP is located in Dobra outside Szczecin in northwestern Poland. A large part of production goes to customers in Scandinavia, and the majority of products are medical products manufactured from liquid silicone.
In 2017. In late autumn, the acquisition of Polyteknik i Mariestad AB, which has its operations in Töreboda with a focus on customized parts in molded polyurethane, was completed. The company had 16 employees at the time and has been operating since 1984.
Today, UW-ELAST’s product range has been significantly expanded, and deliveries are made to a number of Scandinavia’s major leading companies. Our focus is to provide our customers with the technically and economically best solution through the highest possible service and quality, based on extensive knowledge in design, calculation, and material selection.