The com­pany HOF is an­xious to shape the future in the same suc­cess­ful way as in the past. The­re­fo­re, the time has come for a new ge­ne­ra­tion to be in­vol­ved for a suc­cess­ful future. Be­si­des the daugh­ter Diana Hof-​Schnei­der, who star­ted 11 years ago to work in the com­pa­ny, Dr. Alex­an­der Hof, the son of the fa­mi­ly, has now joi­ned the com­pany to re­in­force the ma­na­ge­ment area. 

Steady growth also in the anniversary year

On Oc­to­ber 1st, 2013 the HOF Son­der­an­la­gen­bau GmbH ce­le­bra­ted its 25th an­ni­ver­sa­ry. In this re­gard, the com­pany looks back on many years of ex­pe­ri­ence in the field of freeze-​dry­ing sys­tems, in which in­no­va­tion and per­for­mance were al­ways of ut­most prio­ri­ty.     

The suc­cess of the com­pa­ny, which just had one em­ployee be­side the two ow­ners at its foun­da­tion in 1988, is still gro­wing, after 25 years too. With new mem­bers in 2013, more than 200 em­ploy­ees now be­long to the team.

Relaunch of the company logo and the company configuration

The relaunch of a corporate design (CD) is subject to, as is every other type of advertising in the market, the spirit of the time since viewing habits change and reflect the image of a company. During the course of the relaunch of the CD for HOF-Prüfsysteme, the company logo was first reworked based on the company colors. The communicative effect of the company logo should convey a high-quality impression and the reliability, competence, and creativity of the company and the reference to technology should be expressed graphically.

After the relaunch of the company logo, the company configuration as well as the image brochure will be adapted to the new image under consideration of the factors mentioned above. The development of HOF-Prüfsysteme’s Internet presence was based on the new CD.

The Internet Presence of HOF Prüfsysteme

The most important goal concerning the Internet presence of HOF-Prüfsysteme GmbH was to first ensure that it is optimally structured for usability and that these principles are implemented. In order to cope with high communicative demands, the pages were, among other things, positioned with portrait orientation. HOF is constantly growing and therefore requires sufficient space for communications. The portrait orientation offers HOF the opportunity to configure its Internet presence in a very client-oriented way in order to respond to the special needs of users.

Another important goal for the Internet presence was to emphasize the company’s depiction of itself in addition to featuring clear and appealing visual aspects and giving consideration to the information desired by clients. The fresh breeze through Web 2.0 with the ideas it brings should make itself known in this area.

Content is comprehensively and meaningfully formulated and the navigation paths are set up according to content in consideration of logical factors so that users can find the desired information quickly with only a few clicks. In order to optically support this, the navigation technique will be adapted accordingly.

The established base colors are the company colors of green and blue with gray tones and these project the overall impression in terms of color. The arrangement of content as relates to font size and typography are to remain very user-oriented. Different information will be packed into boxes with various different formatting, the so-called “header boxes” that support improved differentiation and perception of information.

Ever-increasing demands and quality requirements for transport lines of high purity media resulted in an expansion of the orbital department at HOF site. An opportunity was taken to restructure the production hall and expand the orbital department along with additional staff and new construction equipment.

The advanced manufacturing will ensure short reaction times for special cases. Furthermore, the stock of the required materials has been adjusted accordingly. The production hall of the orbital department now allows for large set-ups with pipe segments of up to 12m to be fabricated.

HOF further increased its high standards in weld quality and cleanliness to meet specific demands of large projects.
 

Customized installations often require the separation of refrigeration systems from the processing equipment. Along with increasing distances, storage and transfer requirements of diathermic liquids are accordingly effected by losses due to increased heat intakes and ultimately influencing the efficiency of the freeze drying process. Therefore, highly efficient heat transfer lines are the answer to increasing demands.

HOF performed specific engineering and done development work for these enhanced requirements and extended its construction capabilities after a test phase. New systems are based on high-vacuum-insulated double pipes up to a nominal diameter of DN100. Those transfer lines are pre-fabricated at the HOF workshop and installed at customer’s sites in its final configuration.

This technology offers best possible long-term insulation and is setting new milestones in the market. The lines are completely executed from stainless steel and permanently leak-tight. All welds are performed in high-quality orbital welding technology. The manufacturing process is regularly documented and quality controlled, as in all production areas, ensuring the overall quality in the manufacturing process.

The design is available for heat transfer systems in the temperature range from -100 ° C up to +130 ° C, thus covering all current applications of heat transfer systems utilized for Freeze Drying Systems.

Loa­ding and un­loa­ding sys­tems for freeze-​dryers have a great po­ten­tial. In re­sponse of the in­cre­a­sing de­mand in the mar­ket for these sys­tems, the com­pany HOF has crea­ted new of­fi­ces, en­ga­ged ad­di­tio­nal staff and ex­ten­ded its ma­nu­fac­tu­ring ca­pa­ci­ty.

A new de­si­gn, ad­ap­ted to cu­sto­mer-​spe­ci­fic re­qui­re­ments, was de­ve­lo­ped. High per­for­man­ce, in connec­tion with re­lia­bi­li­ty, is a de­ter­mi­ning fac­tor in this case. The per­for­mance range co­vers ma­nu­al, semi-​au­to­ma­tic or fully au­to­ma­tic sys­tems.Spe­cial packa­ges, dual-​cham­ber car­pu­les or dual-​cham­ber sy­rin­ges are trans­por­ted. World­wi­de, pa­tents for tech­no­lo­gies are held.

The loa­ding & un­loa­ding sys­tems are in­stal­led and tes­ted in our own pro­duc­tion to­gether with the freeze dryer. All set­tings and func­ti­ons can be tes­ted ex­ten­si­ve­ly. It has the ad­van­tage that the in­stal­la­tion and tes­ting times are shor­ter for our cu­sto­mer­s.In order to meet the re­qui­re­ments, it is pos­si­ble to re­tro­fit exis­ting freeze dryers with loa­ding & un­loa­ding sys­tems of HOFDe­pen­ding on the re­qui­re­ments, the freeze dryer and loa­ding & un­loa­ding sys­tem can be cou­pled with RABS and iso­la­tor.

Your new contact person is
Mr. Jens Gemmecker

gemmeckerj(at)hof-sonderanlagen.de

With the integration of a freeze dryer into a composite system there is a need to install a central user interface including its data management.

These requirements can be realized with HOF LYOCOM III and newly with the Siemens process control system PCS7. A uniform navigation interface for all subsystems allows intuitive operation of the process control. The parameterization and documentation of batch processes is done by the Simatic Batch Recipe Editor.

The developement of process control system Siemens standard libraries or customers own libraries can be used. This allows a detailed description of the operating conditions of individual basic functional elements.

The application flow of the basic functional elements is carried out in step sequences, which can be visualized on the user interface. Hereby the troubleshooting is much easier.

The company HOF is therefore able to integrate a freeze-drying system in the PCS7 control system or to deliver a freeze-drying system with PCS7. As standard we will furthermore offer our proven LYOCOM III system.

The HOF vehicle fleet was in the past and will be in the future periodic replaced by new vehicles. Based on our new corporate design and uniformity of colour representation the HOF vehicles becoming successively converted into the metallic silver colour as of 2012. The dark red colour is no longer serving as an identifying feature.

The now more than 60 vehicles in the service department are equipped with the latest special tool. With the expertise of our technicians and the right equipment we will be able to continue to provide the best possible conditions for a customer service application.

HOF also intends to conduct in the future the delicate shelf manufacturing in-house. For an optimized and efficient process flow, the shelf production department will move to the company's own facility “Werk 3” to Mornshausen. Thanks to the redundant design of the new production lines, manufacturing processes are optimized and secured. For the acquisition of the new production lines and for the renovation of the building, investments have been made in the amount of 400,000 €. The renovation measures will be completed in May 2012, so that the shelf production department will be able to start working in the new environment in the coming month of June.

Safe and stable freeze-drying processes are an important link in the production chain of our custo-mers. Therefore, HOF has been offering support in process development and process optimization since 2009. As part of the continuous improvement of this service, a new pilot plant was set up at the facility “Werk 3” in Mornshausen. This pilot plant laboratory is equipped with modern appliances such as a Minilyo with radiation separator, a cryomicroscope and a resistance and temperature measuring device. The aim is to optimize the drying processes and to improve the quality of the product. Furthermore, the HOF Mass Analyzer enables the analysis of the mass spectra, in particular traces of silicone oil, and the monitoring of water vapor concentrations in the process atmosphere under vacuum.

As a central meeting point and core of the main building in Lohra, the administrative area was expanded during a reconstruction phase from March to April 2012.

Thanks to the modification of the adjoining former staff room, the existing office space could be transformed into in a large office providing a pleasant atmosphere, equipped with ten workstations. A welcoming reception area for visitors has been integrated. The design of the open space office and of the reception area was aligned to our newly developed Corporate Design.

In addition, a large office for the service administration and an office for the IT department were upgraded with the latest equipment.

The company HOF invests about € 150,000 in the total modification of the head office with the aim of making the business flow processes for the staff of HOF more positive and efficient.