When new isn’t an option: Factronix turns scrap into solutions
As sustainability climbs the industry agenda, reclaiming and reusing parts is gaining traction. In electronics, the circular economy embodies strategies to extend product lifecycles and promote reuse. At Evertiq Expo Gothenburg 2025, Factronix CEO Stefan Theil outlined how his company is giving a “second life” to hundreds of thousands of components yearly.
His presentation, Component Reclaim – a green solution for the electronic industry, highlighted services such as component recovery, laser reballing, retinning and testing, all aimed at giving components a second life.
Speaking to Evertiq after the presentation, Theil was asked about the main technical difficulties in scaling automated reclaim processes, especially given that “every board is different to the next one.”
“You’re totally right, every board is different, and what we’re going to do is we always need to find a workaround for that,” he said.
According to Theil, the process depends on whether the board is scrap or needs to be returned to the customer. “If it’s a scrap board, for us, life is easy. When the customer wants to have the board back, we need to be really careful, and then we work with work instructions.”
Factronix reclaims “a few hundred thousand, up to maybe a million” components per year, Theil said, noting that volumes rise sharply during component shortages.
The company’s customer base is concentrated in sectors with strict quality requirements. When asked how Factronix guarantees reliability and usability of reclaimed components for industries with high-security standards, Theil said:
“Our main customers are in the military industry, aerospace industry, everything which is flying around. And they do count on the highest quality statements, meaning we not only take care of the solder of the component itself, but we can also test the components. And testing as a package, soldering and testing – that makes the complete part of that,” Theil explained.
While Factronix’s processes are designed to meet the toughest quality demands, industry perception remains a challenge. Reclaimed parts can be seen as “secondhand,” a label Theil admits is difficult.
“It’s always a hard word, secondhand components. My goal is not to convince the customer. Very often, the customers must use us because they have no other option. When they do have obsolescence problems, then they see us as a really good option and as the solution to get on the market again.”
Price competitiveness, he added, is essential: “It makes no sense when you can get a new component, for example, 100 euros, and I’m charging 120 euros for that. It makes no sense. Of course, we always try to find a good solution for the customer, a cost-effective solution for the customer.”
But Theil also underlined that environmental concerns are increasingly shaping customer decisions. “Everybody needs to think about environmental standards. It’s changed a lot in the industry, and that’s our goal for the future,” he concluded.
Stefan Theil will once again take the stage during Evertiq Expo in Warsaw on October 23, 2025, speaking on issues such as component recovery, laser reballing, retinning, and test services – that is, services involved in giving a second life to electronic components that would otherwise be discarded.
