emtec Innovative Testing Solutions - successful for 30 years!

In this special anniversary year, our Global Sales Meeting was the central highlight: at the international representative meeting in Leipzig, our sales staff from all over the world came together to celebrate 30 years of company history and set strategic impulses for the future. At the same time, our sales team's presence at 14 trade fairs in the paper sector and 12 trade fairs in the textile sector sent a strong signal that we are continuing to grow through direct exchange with our customers worldwide.

Global Business Development Manager Alexander Grüner accepted the prestigious Innovation Award 2024 in the “New Product” category at Techtextil North America for the TSA Tactile Sensation Analyzer with the cloud-based Virtual Haptic Library. “The TSA enables a scientifically sound and reproducible evaluation of the haptic properties of fabrics, thereby eliminating the subjectivity of human perception,” explains Grüner. “This allows manufacturers to ensure consistent quality, optimize material decisions, and increase customer satisfaction.” This success not only underscores emtec's innovative spirit, but also reinforces the company's vision for the future: objective, reproducible quality measurement – made in Leipzig.

Besides innovative products that have been developed and improved over the last 25 years, emtec is also flexible enough to take uncommon and new paths if special situations make this necessary. A good example is a customer visit during the peak of the Corona restrictions, which was done by Ulli Kasten and Stefan Rübesam outside on a parking lot while keeping the necessary distance.

emtec Electronic GmbH has become a leading developer and manufacturer of measuring devices for the paper, nonwoven, and textile industries. The company now employs 34 people and offers a portfolio of 13 measuring devices developed in-house. Thanks to a network of 32 international representatives, emtec is present in over 80 countries. These parameters form the foundation on which emtec has been growing successfully for 25 years and looking to the future with motivation.

In 2017 emtec organized its first yearly workshop for the corrugated board industry in Leipzig. Experts from the industry present results from their work with the EST12 Emtec Surface & Sizing Tester or PDA.C02 Module Standard and how they use the devices to optimize their processes and the quality of their products. Different experiences are shared, which often leads to interesting discussions and new ideas. Since 2017 organizes these workshops on a yearly base, usually early in the year.

The latest innovation comes again from the partnership with AFG. Together the improved and new designed CAS touch! and FPA touch! have been introduced to the industry in 2016. The two updated and upgraded test devices didn’t change their measuring principle, but on other fields a lot of improvements could be realized, which makes them again state-of-the-art. With their small size and light weight, it is easy to carry them, the touchscreen enables an easy and intuitive handling and with the PC software deeper analyses of the tested material are possible.

As the first sales representative, Daniel Ohndorf has experienced many interesting, funny, and even strange episodes in his 20 years with the company: "One memory that always makes me smile was a challenging business trip to South America, which my colleague Ulli Kasten accompanied me on. We had a tight schedule with several customer visits per day and traveled by plane every night. This was also the case on the night flight from Bogota to Quito. Although Ulli's 50th birthday began at midnight, he preferred to use the time to take a nap. So our Colombian colleagues and I secretly arranged a small birthday party on board with a tiny cake and champagne from the flight crew. At exactly midnight, we woke Ulli – and probably some other passengers on board – with our Happy Birthday song. He was really surprised and happy, and the rest of the flight was quite fun for everyone."

Since 2013 emtec invites all of its international representatives every two years to Leipzig to share the latest knowledge and experience as well as information about new products and application areas. Three interesting days with excellent discussions. These meetings are not only business meetings, it feels more like meeting family and friends. Emtec organizes good dinners and nice get together every night, including a big BBQ as a recompense for the tight seminar schedule during all three the days. It is always a great experience to have so many of our partners here together at the same time, it is great input for further improvements and innovations.

What an important milestone for emtec to introduce the TSA Tissue Softness Analyzer to the tissue paper industry for objectively measurement of haptic properties of hygienic papers. After the close collaboration with the former SCA Research Center in Mannheim, Mr. Mario Forte, Customer Quality Director Tissue Quality & Environment Europe at Essity, says: “It was a great collaboration over the years with emtec to develop the TSA as key support in soft tissue paper product production, helping in R&D with data and not only with subjective characterization, standardizing and reducing variability across the process and delivering same quality every-day to consumers. We´ve got a lot of good learnings together!”

In 2004, Giselher Gruener and others founded the company AFG Analytic GmbH. In close cooperation with emtec, two new and at this time state-of-the-art wet end test devices could be introduced to the paper industry. The CAS Charge Analyzing System to measure the charge of fiber suspensions – it was the first equipment with integrated titrator. Two years later the FPA Fiber Potential Analyzer was developed to measure the surface charge of the fiber (Zeta Potential). Emtec Electronic has the exclusive right to distribute the two devices worldwide.

In 2002 the innovative PEA module Print Evenness Analyzer for the PDA system was presented to determine the mottling behavior of printing paper. And maybe something to chuckle about: at the end of the emtec product guide version of 2002, a part of the emtec team was shown with the former contact data.

In 1997 the company introduces a smaller version of the PDA Module Standard: the EST12 Surface and Sizing Tester. Hu Yuntao, General Manager of Shanghai Forest & Paper Scientific Instrument Co., Ltd., one of our long-term representatives in China, remembers some of the sales he is very proud of: “Together with the EST, the big players in China like Nine Dragon Paper Group and Shanying International Group as final end users of the device, we found out the reason of their poor printability problems! They adjusted their paper machine settings according to emtec EST t95 results and have overcome these problems.”

After studying physics, Giselher Gruener worked as head of the research and development department at the IGT Institute of Graphic Technologies. After the German reunion, he founded the company emtec Electronic GmbH in 1995 together with the company Muetek, later Muetek BTG, and started with the introduction of the PDA measuring system Penetration Dynamics Analyzer with several modules for special applications (coating color, printing ink, adhesives and oil) to predict the converting properties of paper, liner and board.