FreezeDry has decades of experience and knowledge in the construction of freeze dryiers for the industrial food sector, research institutes and the pharmaceutical industry. Their key goal is to make the advantages of freeze drying also available to other target groups, which are usually outside the freezedrying industry, by offering smaller loading capacities together with a very simple and intuitive operation of the equipment.
Interview with Gorazd Kambič, Managing Director at FreezeDry GmbH.
Easy Engineering: What are the main areas of activity of the company?
Gorazd Kambič: Our topic is freeze drying. Practice has shown us that it needs focus on high quality production, using components only from well-known manufacturers and offering users a responsive service and sales team. We develop and build our products ourselves. This fact allows us to respond also to individual customer needs and thanks to decades of experience to show sometimes ways that were not previously considered.
E.E: What’s the news about new products?
G.K: With different freeze dryer models we cover a wide range to enable our customers flexibility on capacity needs. New is our “Little”, the LIO-2 FP which can freeze dry up to 2 kg of material. Yes, 2 kg is not much, but this small amount brings many benefits. On the one hand, we want to serve the private sector, as it is an increasingly popular trend to preserve own garden produce and having healthy alternatives to classic sweets in form of freeze dried strawberry chips or apple slices for example.
On the other hand, the 2 kg capacity is super suitable for companies and laboratories that want to carry out small-scale trials as part of experiments and product development, which can then be easily transferred and reproduced to larger capacities later on. The LIO-2 FP is also available in a laboratory version that can be adapted to the respective requirements.
E.E: What are the ranges of products?
G.K: We offer our users a capacity range from 2 to 300 kg, which can be freeze-dried in one process. Our models for this are the LIO-2 FP, LIO-10 FP, LIO-20, LIO-80 FP and LIO-300 FP. With these different sizes we try to cover a wide range for freeze drying needs. Our users prefer to cover their total capacity needs with several smaller units in order to create redundancy and also to build up a rolling system in the entire freeze drying workflow.
E.E: At what stage is the market where you are currently active?
G.K: The technology and equipment for freeze drying and its market has existed for decades. The fact that this has now become more user-friendly opens up new areas and opportunities for this industry.
E.E: What can you tell us about market trends?
G.K: End customers are becoming more and more sensitive to the origin of food and demand transparency and a certain sustainability. Topics such as health and alternatives to sweets are also becoming more and more important and demand is increasing. This demand can be clearly met with a freeze dryer.
E.E: What are the most innovative products marketed?
G.K: Definitely our freeze dryers. High-quality manufacturing with top-quality components to meet the highest requirements of very sensitive industries and still make handling as easy as a standard oven at home so that customers from outside the field can also benefit from this technology and our products. Freeze drying can now be done by everyone!
E.E: What estimations do you have for 2023?
G.K: Continuous development of small business and domestic freeze-drying market.