Striving forwards for 40 years
It's no joke: today isn't just any other day! Because what started out small 40 years ago today has in the meantime grown significantly – and has long since developed into the world's leading manufacturer of innovative checking, inspection, rejection and labelling systems for a continuous in-line quality assurance when filling and packaging beverages, food and pharmaceuticals: HEUFT SYSTEMTECHNIK GMBH was founded on 1 April 1979!
Bernhard Heuft started the company back then in Burgbrohl in the Volcanic Eifel, Germany, with just twelve skilled people he knew. The fact that the strength of his highly motivated team has increased a hundredfold over the past 40 years to over 1,200 employees worldwide impressively illustrates that this was the right decision at that time for putting the young family business on the road to sustainable success.
In fact in the truest sense: HEUFT received the first patent for a truly ingenious invention by the company founder which still defines the state of the art today regarding the accurate upright high-speed rejection of faulty empty and full containers – the HEUFT DELTA-FW multi-segment flow rejector.
Genuine innovations for in-line quality assurance
Over 500 further patents have been added since then – and therefore genuine unique technological features which not only optimise in-line quality assurance when filling and packaging beverages, food and pharmaceuticals sustainably but also the efficiency of complete lines.
From the first optical fill level detection to the fill management system with multi-processing capabilities, from the first empty bottle inspector in an efficient straight-through system to the all-surface empty container inspection on less than one square metre of floor space, from the unique pulsed X-rays to the company's own real-time image processing system, from clean labelling to the precise marking inspection, from the harmonious conveyor control system to the comprehensive line analysis: a wide range of innovative technologies from the modular HEUFT system has been setting the standards for efficient in-line quality assurance for 40 years.
Automation and user support from the start
Basic research and the development of solutions not only focused on maximum automation during precise product tracking, reliable fault detection and specific fault rejection but also consistent user support from the start. In this way HEUFT introduced the very first systems with a monitor into the bottling hall for a simply better overview. The company's own graphical user interface was soon to follow, then the audiovisual HEUFT NaVi user guidance and finally real voice control for full operational reliability and productivity.
It is not only the innovative striving forward with countless technological pioneering achievements over the past 40 years which has set the medium-sized family business on a sustainable course for success but also the resulting continuous growth regarding company premises, international sales and service locations as well as competent employees i.e. in research and development, production, project planning and support.
To list all the milestones in the company's history now goes beyond the scope of this article. That is why a whole series of up-to-date reports will soon be launched here which will take a closer look at these and numerous other aspects of the eventful history and promising future of the leading manufacturer of superior in-line quality assurance systems. But now it's time to celebrate; after all, today is a very special day!
