Heat and Control, a world-leading equipment manufacturer and food processing industry supplier, marks two major milestones in 2020—the 70th anniversary of the company and the 25th anniversary of FastBack, the industry pioneer and leading horizontal motion conveyor.
Heat and Control – 70 years of innovation
Heat and Control has been modernizing equipment solutions for seven decades and has revolutionized the food, pharmaceutical, and non-food industries with various new technologies. The company takes pride in the machinery they manufacture and the customers they serve and has developed strategic partnerships to offer customers premium choices, efficiency, and performance.
"We have incredible people in our organization, customers believe in our abilities, and there is respectful collaboration with our global partners," affirms Tony Caridis, Heat and Control President.
One of the keys to Heat and Control’s success has been Caridis' ability to recognize industry-changing technology. Vibratory conveyors dominated the industry until the FastBack horizontal motion conveyor entered the market. The technology caught his attention, "I'm always searching for ways to improve our solutions for our customers, and the FastBack technology fit well into our Heat and Control family of brands. It has grown into a product line that is leading the way in conveying and product handling arena," explains Caridis.
FastBack – created to improve product quality
Until the 1990s, vibratory conveyors were the industry standard. Blake Svejkovsky, Heat and Control General Manager - Product Handling Systems was working in the food industry and recognized the need for a robust, reliable, maintenance-free, quiet conveying solution gentle enough to avoid product breakage, segregation, and loss of coatings. Together with his father, they created the FastBack horizontal motion conveyor. "One of the best things, from a personal perspective, about growing up around my father, who was a NASA engineer, was learning from someone who had both the ability to think at the very highest levels of physics and the know-how to actually go out into the garage, run a lathe and milling machine, and build things," recalls Svejkovsky. With clever thinking and design, they created FastBack in 1995 and looked to transform the conveying/product handling industry.
After overcoming misperceptions related to horizontal motion, FastBack quickly grew. Caridis saw an opportunity to boost Heat and Control's family of brands and move to the next level. The decision to join Heat and Control was simple for Svejkovsky. Besides deep market penetration, Heat and Control was also a family-owned business with the best reputation in the industry for integrity, reliability, innovative technology, and excellent customer service. They introduced horizontal motion technology to the world's food processing industry, and it continues to provide gentle, sanitary, and dependable distribution and seasoning solutions with unmatched expertise.
FastBack – trusted for distribution and seasoning
"I think there are really two main contributors to FastBack’s success," points out Svejkovsky. "The first is Heat And Control's philosophy that "better-and-better beats better-and-best," which means that as individuals and as a company, we're never to consider our work as being done or a solution as the best that we could possibly produce. So then, we're always innovating, always looking to improve our service and our products to keep our customers operating at the cutting edge of performance.
I'd say that the second contributor to FastBack's success is simply Heat and Control's culture of listening to the customer. As with the genesis of the FastBack, Heat and Control develops solutions based on our customers' feedback, whether it be improvements that we could make to our existing product line or something entirely new. So, the voice of the customer is at the heart of our ever growing and improving product line, and I'm always excited about what we'll learn next."
For decades, FastBack technology has been moving the industry forward by providing smarter solutions that improve distribution efficiency throughout the entire plant. With more than thirty patents and more than 20,000 units worldwide, FastBack innovation and attention to detail continues to advance the industry.
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