Hoffmann Mineral invests Euro 4 million in new facility

By Liz White, ERJ staff

Neuberg, Germany-White filler supplier Hoffmann Mineral has spent Euros 4 million to build a new facility for custom treatment of fillers at its Neuberg site.

Hoffmann Mineral, which was set up in 1903 to develop local siliceous earth deposits, started to offer custom-tailored treatments for fillers in the late 1980s, according to a report by the group's product manager Dr Alexander Risch.

Originally Hoffmann used mainly its own Aktisil product range, but now demand for the service for a wider range of materials has grown, Risch said. Surface treatment of aluminium oxides from Nabaltec with different silanes is an example of such demand, he added, in a press statement on the development.

After 18 months construction, the new production building was opened at the end of September, and is now available for this toll-manufacturing service, Hoffmann said.

In recent years fillers such as zinc oxide, calcium carbonate, mica, talc, wollastonite, clays and calcined clays have been chemically upgraded, extending their properties and usefulness, the statement pointed out.

Hoffmann's new production unit uses two mixing concepts for powders: one is simply the homogenous mixing of such powders. The other approach is to modify the properties of various powdered raw materials using various additives or treatments. Quite often these are in liquid form, even though the end result is still a powder. Some processes may also require elevated temperatures, and Risch explains that it is not worthwhile for many customers to invest in such highly specialised production units.

Hoffmann Mineral had both the large-scale specialist equipment, and also claims to have the expertise in to establish exactly the optimum treatment to give the properties needed by the customer. The company thus recognised a gap in the market that it could fill via toll manufacturing, where is claims to offer, "a complete package, focussing on performance with special emphasis on customer requirements."

Hoffmann predicts very good future growth for such filler treatment, having seen the demand grow from 900 tonnes in 1997 to an output approaching 3000 tonnes for 2005. With such growth, Risch said, it needed higher capacity, hence the new building, with "highly modern technology," and efficient material flow from raw material intake down to finished product warehousing.