12.08.2022 by Aileen Sammler

60 Years of Proven Expertise in Service: We Leave Nothing to Chance!

In our anniversary month of August, it’s all about our service, because we want you to feel looked after in the best possible way – before and during the purchasing process, but also after sale. Our knowledgeable service team accompanies you throughout the entire life cycle of your analytical instrument at more than 50 sales and service locations worldwide. Our service offerings will be there to help you quickly and efficiently at all times, especially in times of advancing digitalization.

NETZSCH-Gerätebau has stood for customer orientation, professionalism and sustainability for almost 60 years. In our anniversary month of August, it’s all about our service, because we want you to feel looked after in the best possible way – before and during the purchasing process, but also after sale. Our knowledgeable service team accompanies you throughout the entire life cycle of your analytical instrument at more than 50 sales and service locations worldwide. Our service offerings will be there to help you quickly and efficiently at all times, especially in times of advancing digitalization. Our vision is to provide you with the best possible backing at any given time and place.

NGB-Service: Your complete package from the provider

The extent of our Service Department’s international orientation is demonstrated by our over one hundred trained service technicians in countries all over the world – Germany, Brazil, the USA, China, India, Japan, Korea, Russia, Austria, the Czech Republic, France, England, Italy, Poland and Spain. Accordingly, we are positioned to offer our customers proficient technical service at any time and almost any place, along with a wide range of training options.

Figure: NETZSCH Analyzing & Testing – available to their customers worldwide

In 2001, we founded our subsidiary NETZSCH Instruments North America (NIB) in Boston, USA. 

Today, eleven service technicians are employed at five different service locations in North America. Learn from our NIB Service Manager, Michael Manuelian, about how our customers benefit from our extensive service offering in the US today.

Michael Manuelian graduated with a degree in applied physics and mechanical engineering in 2006 and started working in the NIB laboratory in January 2007. In 2010, he transitioned from being an Application Scientist to Quality Control Manager for NIB Production. In 2017, he moved from Quality Control to the Service Manager position for North America:

“Due to structural changes in our North American branch, NIB started an overhaul of its service. From then on, we were able to provide our customers with comprehensive competitive service offerings. NIB launched a series of service products tailored to our customers’ needs. This included a 3-tier service contract structure that also covered parts costs and unlimited service callouts. Along with this, we introduced preventive maintenance agreements that would renew from year to year for regular instrument maintenance. This launch helped NIB Service to great success on the market as it is loved by NIB customers: During planned maintenance visits, our trained engineers will completely review your instrument’s installation, alignment, and cleanliness, verifying that its performance meets specifications. A detailed maintenance checklist is followed to ensure that the system is operating correctly and safely.

NETZSCH Instruments also introduced service contracts to make customers’ budgeting simple and predictable while providing cost-effective coverage. Our contract offerings provide peace of mind at every level of coverage and we provide multi-year and multi-instrument discounting to keep you up and running for the long haul.

Move to today, NIB has made systematic efforts to onboard larger amounts of our install base to the contract business – with great success and great customer satisfaction. This has resulted in reaching a record in the year 2022 and allowed us to onboard more well-trained new service engineers over the last 4 years for even better servicing and supporting our customers.”

Many thanks to Michael for giving an insight into our service offerings in North America.

Figure: NIB flyer about service contract offerings.

Who Will Retire First? The Analyzer or You?

Analytical instruments by NETZSCH Analyzing & Testing are supported over an exceptionally long period of time. Our best proof of this has been recent: The monthly raffle we’ve been carrying out as part of our year-long 60th anniversary celebration, in which you can win a voucher in the amount of 1,500 Euros each month. In it, we ask: Who has the oldest analyzer still in use?

The entries have been impressive. Many customers personally experienced the installation of our analyzers decades ago and still measure with them today. Often, we received entries with little bets: “Who will retire earlier – the analyzer or me?”.

The DIL 402 E/3 from 1978 has been reliably measuring ever since (photo: © Wendel GmbH)

Our Winner in January:

The oldest dilatometer still in use is located at Wendel GmbH in Dillenburg, Germany. It was purchased in 1978 and has been reliably measuring the coefficient of thermal expansion of ceramic frits, glazes and engopes ever since. Results from the last service check in November 2022: No defects! :-)

Our Winner in February:

The oldest STA still in use is located at our long-standing customer, the Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems, IKTS, in Dresden, Germany. This STA 429 was built in 1977 and is still being used today for investigations on DebindingDebinding is one of the main production steps in the ceramic and powder-metallurgical industries. It refers to the thermal or catalytic removal of additives used in steps prior to production such as casting.debinding behavior and gas reactions in the production of ceramics and powder metallurgical materials, as well as for the determination of transformation temperatures and reaction enthalpies in processes such as melting and solidification.

At the Fraunhofer IKTS in Dresden, an STA 429 from 1977 is still in operation; it has been lovingly cared for and continuously updated over the years (photo: © IKTS Fraunhofer Dresden)