News

HOFFMANN MINERAL wins Award for the Best Marketing Campaign (08/07/2008)

The new marketing campaign featuring the microstructure of the Neuburg Siliceous Earth in association with the key applications is proving to be a big success for HOFFMANN MINERAL. Against stiff competition from companies like Wacker and Cytec, HOFFMANN MINERAL was presented with "The Best Marketing Campaign of the Year" award at the Asia Pacific Coating Show 2008 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. This prestigious award was presented to the Marketing Team of HOFFMANN MINERAL, Ursula Golling and Dr. Alexander Risch on June 25, 2008 (photograph).

Two years ago, HOFFMANN MINERAL won the Environmental Award of the coatung show and is very proud to have received this latest award.

Extended Shelf Life for Aktisil standard products (24/04/2008)

After elaborate laboratory and pilot plant trials we can extend the shelf life guaranty for our products

Aktisil VM 56
Aktisil MM
Aktisil MAM
Aktisil EM
Aktisil PF 216

at least to two years.

In our trials we proved the efficiency of Aktisil in selected applications.

By that the shelf life of the surface coated Neuburg Siliceous Earth is evidentially higher than those of the used coupling agents and coatings.

Hoffmann Mineral wins the Environmental Award in Kuala Lumpur (07/09/2006) (07/09/2006)

New Powder Technology Building inaugurated at Neuburg on the Danube (05/10/2005)

Million Investment in innovative technique / Festivities with numerous guests.

On September 29, 2005 HOFFMANN MINERAL had welcomed at the Central Office Building in Neuburg around 180 guests to celebrate the inauguration of its new Powder Technology building - representatives from politics, from the industry, from local authorities and banks, as well as customers, business partners and company employees. After a construction period of 18 months, a production building with a future oriented infrastructure is now available for the business area 'Toll Manufacturing'. Following the official opening by company owner Manfred Hoffmann jr., Landrat Dr. Richard Kessler, the administrator of the Neuburg district and the Deputy Mayor of the town of Neuburg, Heinz Enghuber, addressed those present. In the following, Product Manager Dr. Alexander Risch was to review in particular the development of the service of tailor-made custom filler production.

HOFFMANN MINERAL, founded in 1903 as a mining company for exploiting the near-by Neuburg Siliceous Earth deposits, oriented mainly towards the own product range, i.e. for producing the Aktisil grades, but the early production facilities were also able to respond to a growing number of outside inquiries, which in part have grown into requirements still existing today. The surface treatment of aluminum oxides from Nabaltec with different silanes is just one such example reaching into the future.

The chemical upgrading during recent years of fillers such as zinc oxide, calcium carbonate, mica, talc, wollastonite, clays and calcined clays has further expanded the trend towards «multimineral» usefulness. Basically, the production unit makes use of two mixing concepts for powder raw materials. One is simply the homogenous mixing of such powders even in markedly different proportions. Along the other line, the properties of different powder raw materials are modified by the addition of various additives or treatment agents. Quite often these are added in liquid form, but at the end of the process

there will still result a powder material. If necessary, the process may require to be carried out at elevated temperature, and such highly specialized production units are not viable or profitable for many customers. In addition, a tremendous amount of know-how is constantly offered by HOFFMANN MINERAL's Research and Development efforts, in order to find or develop exactly the optimum treatment material that leads to properties as defined by the customer.

But the Toll Manufacturing service of HOFFMANN MINERAL is by far not limited to the mixing and homogenizing or the treatment and upgrading of powder materials. It is a complete package, focussing on performance with special emphasis on customer requirements. Raw material intake, product development, sample preparation, quality assurance, production, packaging, logistics and shipping are all integrated with the respective departments and their employees into the objective of achieving optimum results. These can only be assured with the appropriate personnel, i.e. people who throw in their own ideas and suggestions, or who in the production plant have developed an unmistakable sense for situations and act and react fast on the base of solid experience. HOFFMANN MINERAL calls itself happy to have such employees.

All such considerations have lead to attribute very good chances of future growth to the area of Toll Manufacturing. The so far successful development was rightly confirmed by figures. While in 1997 the production amounted to 900 tons, today the output approaches 3000 tons for this year. It was this positive development that called for increased production capacity,

and in the end for a new building. The new production units offer highly modern technology with an efficient material flow from raw material intake down to finished product warehousing. In total, HOFFMANN MINERAL has invested about 4 million Euro into the new unit. This investment will help, along with motivated personnel and the existing innovation power, to develop new markets and this way create a base in the long term to build Toll Manufacturing into a second «standing leg» of the HOFFMANN MINERAL company.

Siliceous Earth Graffiti Art on a Bulk Truck (03/03/2004)

Graffiti and real art - do they have something in common? A seemingly justified question. For not everyone around hasdeveloped an unconditioned appreciation as an expression of art for the sprayed-on paintings and symbols ("tags") which in most cases illegally and uncommissioned turn up overnight on many walls, underground trains or bridges. Only rarely a motif or image can be understood at first sight by an unexperienced eye, and these 'daubings' still today do not

meet with true acceptance by many people. One of the underlying reasons certainly is the fact that in the 80s and 90s graffiti especially in arge cities served as a kind of revolutionary expression of younger people from low social classes by which they wished to call attention to the problems and injustices they encountered. Today, talented sprayers have been able to rise above the illegal scene, as cities and communities have started to pay tribute to this kind of alternative expression of art, and even offer to these artists surfaces where to display their graffiti pictures. For some time already, graffiti have developed into a cultural phenomenon!

This way, Wolfgang Asam from the Asam haulage company at Aichach Aichach estabished contact with the young Chinese artist Daniel Man Ken-Young, whose name had been given to him by the police authorities as a well-known sprayer. Having for a long time taken a liking to this kind of artistic expression, Wolfgang Asam had developed the idea to decorate his bulk trucks with graffiti art paintings. As a result, a good number of bulk trucks was sprayed, all with different motifs, according to the materials carried in the respective silos, or corresponding to the background of the artist. Each vehicle by itself is unique in its representation, and conspicuous to the point that the HERPA company, a well known manufacturer of model cars to a scale of 1:87, decided to produce models of some of these trucks for its large number of and collector fans. This way, Asam went full circle and joined the art gallery of model car collectors with his trucks.

Maybe as a bulk customer you have already seen one of these trucks enter your plant site for deliveries. We have heard from many sides that these cars are "eye-catchers", and we have passed on this praise to Wolfgang Asam. When last year the Asam truck fleet was to be extended by a 60 m3 bulk tractor-trailer, Mr. Asam approached us to ask whether we would be ready to pay for a graffiti painting on this vehicle with a subject in line with Hoffmann Mineral and our siliceous earth. Abstract multicolored graffiti or just our company logo were out of the question, but in discussions with Daniel Man Ken-Young, we succeeded in making the artist understand siliceous earth as a raw material taken from the soil, and he

immediately started drawing some sketches. Siliceous earth ("Kieselerde") as a word, fitted into nature and countryside, all this in graffiti style on a curved silo truck body - such an assignment was not easy to realize. But the result looks very impressive: after a week's painstaking spray work a unique bulk truck emerged from the Schöne paint shop in Everswinkel (Northrhine-Westphalia), featuring a motif in full harmony with our product. On February 18, 2004, this brand-new vehicle, freshly painted and decorated with a multitude of red balloons, for the first time drove into our courtyard: a big "first" for our Sales and Marketing team, and also for our top managers who cared to interrupt their meeting and to attend the taking over ceremony.

We are very happy with this truck, and we thought you might take an interest in this happening and share our delight. At our 100-years ceremony in 2003, we have already celebrated siliceous earth with a splendid musical. Now we can rightly claim that we have also won the modern art phenomenon of "Graffiti" for our purposes.

In case you order your siliceous earth in bulk, you will evidently be able to see our "eye-catcher" silo truck in your plant. But there is no reason for disappointment if your factory layout does not allow for bulk deliveries at this present time; maybe in the course of this year there will be other possibilities to present to you this interesting vehicle - just keep looking forward to the surprise!

New Employee in Sales and Marketing (01/12/2000)

HOFFMANN MINERAL GmbH & Co. KG has appointed Dr. Alexander Risch to the newly created position of Technical Support Manager in Sales and Marketing.

Alexander Risch was born on May 7, 1968 in Heilbronn/Neckar, Germany. After studying mineralogy, he obtained a doctorate in applied mineralogy from Erlangen University and joined HOFFMANN MINERAL GmbH & Co. KG on October 1, 1999.

During his study, Alexander Risch put the main emphasis of his scientific work on properties of hydraulic binders, especially cement and concrete, and their course of hydration influenced by different admixtures. Furthermore he got a varied experience in ceramic materials.

After earning his diploma he became project manager at the Department of Mineralogy in Erlangen directing a part of the BMBF-project "high temperature superconduction in power engineering". Within this project he finished his PhD thesis with the research on "mineralogical characterisation of high-Tc superconducting multifilamentary tapes".

Dr. Alexander Risch will build a link between the area sales managers and the application labs of paint and varnish, polymer and mineral and also will support customers directly in co-operation with research and development.