History of Trelleborg in Mining

From the very start in 1905, Trelleborg manufactured a variety of technical rubber products including multilayered, cloth reinforced rubber belts.

In the 1920’s and 1930’s, Trelleborg became Scandinavia’s largest producer of conveyor belts.

Rubberising of steel conveyer belts was an idea that germinated in the early 1950s in collaboration with Sandviken. A new generation of heat-resistant conveyer belts containing reinforcing materials such as fiberglass were developed. Another advance was made in the mid-1960s, when synthetic fibers such as polyester and polyamide were used in the newly developed EP conveyor belt.

During the 1960s, the new “Duenero” brand of rubber screens for the mining industry became a best-seller, resulting in a successful new unit at Trelleborg, the Mining Service Division. During the 1950’s the rubber screen was conceived by a traveling salesman, Åke Wallin who was working in Sweden’s central mining district with its many iron, zinc and lead mines. This insight was the basis for an intense effort initiated at Trelleborg resulting in an assortment of hard-wearing rubber products that would later be sold under the Trellex brand including dust seals, mill linings, wear panels and mineral-processing products.

The durability of rubber soon resulted in entire mill linings being converted from steel to rubber. The Mining Service Division gained a foothold in all corners of the globe.

In 1986, Trelleborg directly entered the mining industry when it purchased shares of Boliden, which had 16,000 employees. Successively, Trelleborg increased its ownership share until it owned the entire company in 1988.

In 1987, Boliden acquired some 10 units and operating areas from the US Allis-Chalmers Group. The primary products were crushing and screening equipment for the mining and processing industries.. As a Trelleborg company, this entity was now called Boliden Allis.

The Trelleborg Group now included six major independent business areas: Rubber & Plastics, Mining & Metals, Chemicals, Building & Distribution, Contracting and Mineral Processing. The initial products of rubber and plastics were no longer dominant.

Mining and metals were now the largest business area. The old rubber company had been transformed into a conglomerate.

In 1989, within the Mineral Processing business area alone, 40 companies were acquired in Scandinavia, Western Europe and North America. During the same year, all business areas were incorporated., Mineral processing became Svedala Industri AB., Building & Distribution was restructured as Norrviken Industri AB., Mining/Metals became Boliden AB while Rubber/Plastics became Trelleborg Industri.

In July 1990 the mineral processing systems subsidiary of Trelleborg Group, Svedala Industri AB was taken public and became an associated company with 49.5 percent owned by Trelleborg.

In 1991, Svedala Industri acquired Componenta, increasing the company’s number of employees to 10,500. The overall economic situation however deteriorated sharply. Metal prices dropped and the Swedish construction market collapsed and shares in various associated Trelleborg companies were sold. At the end of 1993 the remaining shares in Svedala were sold together with the now famous product name Trellex, developed whilst a Trelleborg company.

The final phase of the extensive and painful restructuring program that began in the early 1990s was completed in 1994 and 1995.

The rigorous debt-restructuring program paid off. By the end of 1995, Trelleborg was essentially debt-free. This created significant scope for new investments and acquisitions focused on the initial core competencies of Trelleborg – Engineered Rubber Products.

Between 1997 and 2003 , Trelleborg sold its shares in Boliden and returns to being an industrial rubber and distribution group that provides products that damps, seals and protect.

Due to Caveats during the sale of Svedala and associated entities, the Trelleborg Group was restricted from re-entering the mining industry until 2005.

In 2002 Trelleborg Engineered Systems Australia purchased Armwest in Western Australia as a base on which to grow the Engineered Rubber & Polymer business associated with the mining industry.