Denipro, a subsidiary of the Swiss industrial conglomerate Ferag, now offers its reliable conveyor and cargo-mover products for all types of applications. The company, which has a dominant position in the newspaper industry, is adapting existing products and developing new ones for other industries. It is also looking for distributors in the North American market said spokesman Walter Wild.

Denipro was showing a number of products, including a light-duty spiral conveyor, a plate-chain conveyor, and a modular roller for moving cargo along the floor at ProMat 2011. The company was highlighting its unusual friction-reduction design, which it developed in cooperation with the Technical University of Chemnitz in Germany. The design reduces friction to such a degree that the flat conveyors, for example, require fewer motors, no sectional drives, and just a couple of main drives. As a result, the system is far more energy-efficient than typical installations that might require several dozen drives, said spokesman Walter Wild. "People tend to add power when they want to increase speed," he said. "This system gives you more speed and throughput using less power."