Family-owned businesses have long been a staple of the world economy. According to Handelsblatt, a leading German-language business newspaper, over 90% of German companies are family-owned and employ a majority of the country’s workforce. Seifert Systems is among this group of German companies and has the added distinction of leadership being passed down through generations of the family.
Innovation Focus Promotes Global Growth
In 1965, Rolf Seifert founded Seifert Systems in Germany with a vision of becoming an international supplier of thermal management products for industrial applications. A few years later in 1972, with the company slogan “wegweisend innovativ,” or “pioneering innovation,” Seifert began producing aluminum heat sinks for industrial cooling. Soon, the company began developing and distributing full thermal management systems.
Seifert Systems built its reputation on producing products with excellent quality and, as a result, the company grew rapidly. It developed regional entities in Switzerland in 1988 and moved into Malta in 1992. The company diversified into new industries when it began producing telecommunication industry-specific cooling systems in 1995. Seifert continued its global growth into the 21st Century, creating regional headquarters in the United States in 2000 and opening in Australia in 2010. Further expansion happened with the opening of a sales office in Italy in 2019, a warehouse and sales location in India, a wholly new state of the art facility in Radevormwald, Germany, and extensive expansion at the main production plant in Malta.
Today, Seifert has seven locations and employs 370 people and is headquartered in Malta. Michael Seifert, son of the founder, currently serves as the second-generation President and CEO, and his son, Philipp Seifert, manages local operations.
“I take great pride in the origins of Seifert and how far we have come since being founded by my father,” Michael said. “We have grown from humble beginnings into a diversified pioneer of innovation, blending the traditions of the past with the transformations necessary to secure our future. Today my son Philipp is spearheading digitization and automation initiatives that make us a prime partner for similarly minded companies, bringing ever incrementing improvements to our entire value chain.”
Seifert Systems is comprised of two major divisions. The Thermal Division designs and produces thermal solutions for the company’s global customer base. The Contract Equipment Manufacturing Division provides a diverse portfolio of value-added products and services to both local and international businesses.
Diverse Product Portfolio for Any Need
Customers use Seifert Systems’ products throughout the world in a diverse group of industries. Seifert distributes more than half of its products throughout Europe followed closely by North America. With a product line that includes indoor and outdoor cooling units, filter fans, and thermoelectric coolers, Seifert Systems products are found in traffic management systems, solar and wind energy generation systems, and computer components. Customers use its products in the machine tool/automation, data and telecom, military, medical, and energy industries.
Seifert Systems’ North American facility is located in Rhode Island and features a design center, a distribution center, and an air conditioner servicing and support team. This facility produces indoor cooling units, outdoor cooling units, variable speed cooling units, top mount units, and Peltier units.
“We heat, cool, ventilate, dehumidify, and illuminate enclosed controls,” said Michael Seifert. “With a wide range of standard products and customized solutions, we can offer the right product for most environments. As a globally operating company, an international outreach and visible presence in all major markets is important to us,” he continued. “Every market has specific requirements and development trends. Through direct contact with our international customers we are familiar with all their particular expectations and develop products to meet their needs.”
A Focus on R&D and Customization
To ensure it offers the best products and components to customers, the company follows its core values of reliability, safety, quality, and compliance that Rolf Seifert instilled from the beginning. Additionally, Seifert Systems will design and customize a product to meet the unique needs of its customers. From the first stage of Research & Design to the finishing touches of the customized product, the company is committed to going above and beyond for clients.
“At its core, Seifert is an engineering driven company that believes in the value of intelligent design,” Michael said. “Our customers’ requirements are the basis of our design philosophy – many having been the driving force of new innovations entering our product range. While offering a broad range of standard products, a central competency of Seifert is to design and realize new products based on specific customer applications, delivering solutions catering to any potential need. As a family owned company, we focus on the kind of long-term value that is difficult to realize with our competition, evidenced by the multitude of decades-long partners in our portfolio.”
Seifert Systems strives to maintain its leading market position for thermal management of control cabinets by constantly improving the company’s operations and its products. Its entire industrial product line meets U.S., Canadian, and other international safety, and quality standards. All of its thermal management products are also branded by the registered trademark, SoliTherm®.
In fact, the new SoliTherm® cooling units of the SlimLine Pro series are setting new standards for installation, reliability, price-performance ratio and running costs. The company distributes its high-quality thermoelectric cooling units through AutomationDirect in the U.S. These units are used in consumer and industrial applications that require heat removal such as computers, mini refrigerators, dehumidifiers, and laser equipment.
Thermoelectric cooling units create a temperature difference between the internal and ambient heat sinks, making internal air cooler while dissipating heat into the external environment. They also assist in the convective heat transfer from the heat sinks, which are optimized for maximum flow. Thermoelectric cooling units use the Peltier effect to cool the applications in which they are placed. Discovered in France in 1834, the Peltier effect is the presence of heating or cooling at an electric junction with two different conductors.
The only moving part in Seifert Systems’ cooling units is the axial fan, requiring virtually no maintenance to keep the units operational. As a result of having just one part, the units can be mounted in nearly any position. In addition, Seifert Systems’ thermoelectric cooling units are very durable and are resistant to extreme ambient conditions, remain effective in oily and dusty environments, and can be used in indoor and outdoor applications. The units maintain an operating temperature range of -4°F to 149°F (20°C to 65°C).
Seifert Systems is active on the trade show and exhibitions circuit, showcasing its top-of-the-line products at the Middle East Electricity show, the Hanover Industrial Fair, Pack Expo, WEFTEC and the CSIA Executive Conference. The demand and popularity for liquid cooling units has risen in recent years due to increased power losses of electronic devices used. To meet this demand, the company recently began producing chillers, which cool liquid media, to complement their air-water heat exchangers.
Looking Forward to the Next 50 Years
The company is building on its success by continuing to grow what Rolf Seifert began in 1965 and looking toward the future.
“In an industrial landscape that is changing more rapidly than ever before, Seifert is continuously focused on our outlook to the future,” Michael said. “Environmentally friendly products with less power consumption and a reduced carbon footprint, cutting edge packaging with unprecedented ease of use and space use, and effortless ways to purchase and receive our products are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to building toward the future. We are embracing the advances in Industry 4.0 throughout the company, pushing the boundaries of what is possible to ensure the highest quality product in the shortest time, with the greatest of flexibility to position ourselves as the key partner for mission critical applications.”