Hotset acquires temperature control technology service provider iQtemp

With the acquisition of the technology service provider iQtemp on June 1, 2023, the German family-owned company Hotset has taken a forward-looking step towards further expanding its competencies and entering new market segments on the occasion of its 50th anniversary. This is because the Hotset portfolio of products, components and systems is undergoing a significant expansion through the integration of iQtemp services from the fields of engineering, simulation technology, additive manufacturing as well as vacuum brazing, diffusion welding, corrosion protection and filter technology. "With this expansion of expertise, we are underpinning our know-how in the disciplines of control technology, system development and process optimization, and at the same time opening up new, large areas of freedom for the realization of innovative, intelligent thermal management solutions for all tasks in industrial heating and cooling technology," says Hotset Managing Director Ralf Schwarzkopf. On the one hand, this means that the company can support its customers in plastics technology, toolmaking, foundry engineering, packaging technology, food technology and hot runner technology even more intensively in their development and design work. On the other hand, it can now extend its radius of action far beyond into the application areas of additive manufacturing, surface and coating technology and materials engineering. "De facto, Hotset is increasing its scope of action quite considerably by integrating our engineering and technology services. In this context, the fact that our competencies can be directly docked onto the current Hotset portfolio in many places should release synergies relatively quickly," says Carlo Hüsken, iQtemp's previous managing director.

For years, both Hotset and iQtemp have been committed to the goal of developing intelligent system solutions for industrial temperature control technology - for use in moldmaking, for example. This common ground also recently provided the impetus for entering into acquisition talks. "iQtemp's service portfolio seemed very attractive to us from the outset and is an ideal fit for our system approach. It now puts us in a position to implement customized, energy-efficient and pioneering complete solutions for thermal management for processes in a wide range of industries," emphasizes Sven Braatz, sales manager and authorized signatory of Hotset. A decisive aspect at this point: With the takeover, Hotset not only has additional know-how in design and simulation technology, but also numerous competencies that are relevant for the rapid implementation of customer-specific system and project solutions. These include, for example, layering processes, vacuum brazing and diffusion welding, as well as corrosion protection for temperature control channels and the construction of stainless steel line filters to protect the channels from dirt and blockages. "Our new range of services now has a bandwidth that opens many doors for us and significantly fuels our innovative strength. The development of flexible temperature control systems for high precision requirements will benefit from this, as will our plan to enable manufacturing companies to transform from gas- or steam-based process heat generation to an economical electric heat supply," says Hotset Managing Director Ralf Schwarzkopf.