The company Hidria AET from Tolmin opened its doors today for the pupils, students, craftsmen and businessmen from the domestic environment, journalists, recipients of scholarship, pensioners, family members of the employees, representatives of the local community and all those interested in employment or the working atmosphere in a successful company with 55 years of history. Hidria AET, which employs 280 people, will pay special attention to the new production line of innovative fuel heaters, expanded production of electronic components and expanded production of ignition systems for diesel engines that correspond to the requirements of the EURO6 and EURO7 standards.

“Compared to 2009, the sales more than doubled this year,” said the Managing Director of the company Boštjan Bratuš: “With the co-operation of all colleagues, we successfully faced the challenges of the global economic crisis which resulted in a 40-percent drop in sales in 2009. The plan is to earn 30 million euros from sales this year.” Boštjan Bratuš added that the buyers’ orders are currently at a high level. The company is convinced that the business partners from all over the world trust it also because it invested in new development and production capacities in spite of unfavourable situation in the automotive industry in the past two years. These will be presented to their guests at today’s Hidria AET day.
 
The new acquisition of Hidria AET is the production of high-technology fuel heaters with integrated temperature and water level sensors. The innovation developed by the colleagues of Hidria AET Iztok Skočir, Igor Dolenc in Aleš Bizjak is a new product on the global market; they received Hidria’s award for Innovators of the Year and the award of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry – Northern Primorska Regional Chamber. The version of the heater with two sensors, one for temperature and one for water allows for classical heating of fuel as well as the measurement of its temperature and detection of water in fuel, which is eliminated through a special segment of the filter. The core of the heating part is the PTC ceramic components which enable self-control functioning of the heater and prevent potential occurrence of fuel ignition or fire in the car. Patent application has already been filed for the solution that meets all the applicable environmental standards and is the result of team work of Hidria’s experts in close co-operation with the business partner. The product will be integrated in the vehicles of the Opel trademark and the system upgrade will be manufactured for other buyers as well.
 
In addition to the production facilities, the visitors of today’s event in Hidria AET will also be able to visit the development laboratories of Hidria Institute Automotive which started operating in June 2008. In the institute, which is an important development centre of Posočje, they will learn about the work of the engineers who create innovative solutions for driving systems of the state-of-the-art and environmentally friendly cars. The growth in the range of diesel engine cold start systems is crucial for Hidria AET and the entire Hidria Corporation on their way to achieving the set goal: become one of the three leading global manufacturers in this segment.
 
Hidria AET will mark another important milestone in October this year: the opening of Hidria’s new automotive technologies production in Changshu, China. With the first production location in Asia, Hidria will strengthen its global role and become even more efficient in supporting the needs of our business partners in China, Japan, Korea, India, Malaysia and other Asian countries.