Acceleration of drying process Customers want acceleration of their process, among other things. Maarten Cramer mentions the drying process. “Think of agricultural samples of grass or corn, for example, or soil samples for construction. The drying process is an essential part of the analysis. The farmer was just waiting: ‘What can I spread on my land?’ The road builder wondered, “Can I asphalt now or not? Because drying alone took 14 hours. We shortened that to five hours – a huge improvement. Speed turned out to be hugely influential for many users, more so than we thought.” Uniformity in temperature with sensor grid Another customer desire is uniformity in temperature. In an oven or climate chamber, it determines the outcome of a process, from baking bread to drying grass. The necessary temperature control is only possible with proper measurement. Therefore, a grid of sensors is often installed in furnaces. “That way you can see what’s actually happening. We recently purchased a 24-channel recorder to monitor all those sensors. If we want to know how hot a product is in the oven, we can poke sensors into it. Indeed, like in the kitchen a special thermometer is poked into meat.”

Energy-efficient With furnaces, energy consumption and conservation are now topical. “We try to respond to that, but it’s always about the balance between the speed of process required and the energy required.” Recently, Apollo has a number of ovens with an eco mode, says Jeroen Cramer. “For example, if a customer wants to dry products on the weekend, he has nothing to worry about. If the goal is achieved, the oven will turn off automatically or keep running at a lower temperature. What also helps is that we only work with electric heat and don’t have gas-powered ovens.” Heat pump for climate cabinet An innovation the company is now developing is a climate cabinet that works with a heat pump. “The energy consumption is only one-sixth of what is normal for such a cabinet. For larger labs, this is interesting to deploy widely. In a drying process, you need heat, to evaporate moisture, and cold to condense and drain it. You can use a heat pump to make that process balanced and efficient.”

Advanced extraction system Another innovation is the Apollo Syn extraction system for refrigeration, freezer and hatchery equipment. The question came from a biolab, where a strong odor was coming from the incubators. The Syn provides extraction of unwanted substances. “It is an advanced system that can also be used for ovens and air conditioners. We can fit it with filters and tailor it completely to customers’ needs. The timer is freely programmable, but manual operation is also possible.” Growth ambition Driven by a strategic reflection in corona time and the arrival of Cramer junior, a growth ambition was formulated. An important element in this is standardization, explains Jeroen Cramer. “Products that we once made for one customer, we want to make available to everyone. With the knowledge we have gained, we will continue to develop those products. Equipped with the necessary information, we will include them in our portfolio so that everyone can see what those products can do for them. To that end, we want to market Apollo as a brand.” The Cramers are also cautiously looking across the border for this, toward Belgium, Germany and England. Experience lab Customization, meanwhile, remains important, Maarten Cramer concludes. “Thinking along with the customer to discover what their question is and what solution we have. We are going to build an experience lab for that discovery process. There, the customer can work with us to see if the solution we have in mind fits their needs.”

• Oven for drying plastic pressure containers for hydrogen, serving an automotive application.
• Climate cabinets for the conditioned storage of food products until their THT date, for the purpose of research in the event of complaints from the market.
• Conditioned storage of high-quality adhesives for the assembly of ASML systems.
• Furnace for thermal treatment of diamond under inert gas at 1,800 °C, for high-precision applications in laser systems.
• Preservation, at stable relative humidity and without oxygen, of garments recovered from a VOC ship near Texel.