Anton Paar ProveTec

Anton Paar ProveTec GmbH
legal form	GmbH
founding	1873
Seat	Dahlewitz , Germany
management	Heinz Kindlhofer
Number of employees	82
Branch	Petroleum testing devices, laboratory testing devices, mechanical and plant engineering
Website	www.anton-paar.com

The Anton Paar ProveTec GmbH , formerly Petro Test GmbH is a German company and part of the Anton Paar group. It produces laboratory equipment and is one of the leading suppliers of test equipment for the mineral oil, petrochemical and chemical industries. In addition, the company produces measuring instruments for the cosmetics industry, the flavor and fragrance industry, the food industry and the pharmaceutical industry. The company is ISO-9001 certified and is based south of Berlin in Dahlewitz .

history

Berthold Pensky

Owner history

In 1873 the mechanic Berthold Pensky , who also invented the Pensky-Martens flash point tester, founded the company in Berlin . After working at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin-Dahlem (today the Federal Institute for Materials Testing), Berthold Pensky went into business for himself and manufactured flash point testers, as well as viscometers , grain samplers and sub-machines . Due to the production of flash point testers according to the methods of flash point determination according to Pensky-Martens and Abel-Pensky, the company became known in a row. Flash point testers are still one of the most frequently used test devices in the mineral oil industry. The flash point measurement was developed in the 19th century and is used to determine the quality of fuels and lubricants. The "closed crucible" method was developed in Germany - with the significant contribution of Berthold Pensky, who modified the British Abel system (Abel-Pensky). Together with Adolf Martens (1850–1914) he invented the Pensky-Martens method, which is still established today. After a few years he sold his company located at Wilhelmstrasse 122 to his two employees, Wilhelm Sommer and Max Runge. These operated under the name of Sommer & Runge , which was run until the 1990s. The sales markets were primarily Germany, the Netherlands, Russia and Romania.

In 1914 Wilhelm Randow and Adolf Preukezas bought the company from Max Runge's widow. The company was later taken over by Wilhelm Randow's children. During the Second World War mainly aircraft parts were manufactured. The plant was partially destroyed by the bombing of Berlin and temporarily relocated to Dahme / Mark.

After 1948, the company was continued in the old premises by Erwin Wierzbicki - a grandson of Wilhelm Randow - and a production program of mineral oil testing devices was set up especially for the German-speaking area. At that time the products were mainly precision mechanical laboratory devices, but in some cases the first electromechanical automatic flash point testers were also developed and manufactured.

Volkmar Wierzbicki took over the Sommer & Runge (SUR) company from his mother on January 1, 1979, after he had founded the PETROTEST company in 1975 . The SUR company was still a traditional company with a strong handicraft character that manufactured test equipment for the laboratories of the mineral oil industry. Sales were almost exclusively aimed at Germany. The range of products included around 100 different products, with one-off production dominating, series of five being the exception. In June 1985, an English-language catalog was published for the first time, which was constantly reprinted and reissued. Since the catalog was published, foreign sales have increased to around 80% of total sales and include all oil-producing countries.

In mid-March 1989, after 85 years, the company premises in Bennigsenstrasse were terminated and the company moved to Berlin-Marienfelde . On January 1, 1992 the legal form of the company was changed. The companies Sommer & Runge KG ; Petrotest, V. Wierzbicki, Berlin and Petrotest Laboratory Supplies, Hamburg were merged to form the new company Petrotest Instruments GmbH & Co. KG . The name Sommer & Runge, which is over 100 years old, had to be given up due to the German Commercial Register and the international fame of the name Petrotest. In 1996 the company moved into its own building south of Berlin in Dahlewitz in order to be able to expand further. Volkmar Wierzbicki sold Petrotest Instruments GmbH & Co. KG to Anton Paar GmbH at the end of February 2012 .

The company has been operating as Anton Paar ProveTec GmbH since 2013 .

Products & Innovations

Anton Paar ProveTec produces flash point testers, distillation units, oxidation stability testers, test devices for determining the low temperature properties of fuels, penetrometers and other measuring instruments for the mineral oil industry at the Dahlewitz site. These products are used for quality control in the above industries.

There are internationally standardized test methods for these products, most of which were developed at the end of the 19th century by scientists such as Engler, Ubbelohde, Martens and Pensky in and around Berlin. These procedures have found their way into the standards of DIN , ASTM , IP and GOST , among others .

The devices manufactured today correspond to these standards, but are much easier for the user to operate thanks to the use of microprocessor technology .

Interchangeable head for flash point tester

Anton Paar ProveTec, formerly Petrotest GmbH, in Dahlewitz (D)

In 1996 the interchangeable head for flash point tester was patented. This gives users the option of performing flash point tests automatically with a sample changer. This enables the user to speed up the individual tests, since manual insertion, necessary cooling and manual removal of the sample container are no longer necessary.

RSSOT - Rapid Small Scale Oxidation Tester

Numerous test methods for determining the oxidation stability in fuels are known and available. Most test methods are out of date and represent a considerable amount of time and analytical work for the user on the one hand and very large quantities of fuel are required on the other, which represent a not inconsiderable safety risk.

Some of the results of these measurement methods are very imprecise and it is difficult to make a statement about the stability of the fuels and their use, such as B. in the automotive industry can be used.

Therefore, in 2002, work began on developing a faster measuring method that, for the safety of the user, uses a much smaller sample amount and at the same time significantly improves the precision. The development of a corresponding new measuring method was welcomed by the industry and proposed for an internationally valid standardized measuring method.

For this purpose, the measurement procedure had to be carried out in so-called technical committees of the standardization bodies such B. in the USA at ASTM International and accepted for the development of a new method.

The method was published by ASTM International in 2009 and includes the methods for gasoline (ASTM D7525) and diesel, biodiesel and blends (ASTM D7545). The European standard for liquid petroleum products (EN 16091) was published by CEN in 2012 .

Currently the only device that works according to these standards is the Rapid Small Scale Oxidation Tester (RSSOT), which is sold exclusively by Anton Paar ProveTec. The instrument became known under the name PetroOXY, the new successor device is called RapidOxy 100.

“The sole source of supply of the apparatus known to the committee at this time is Petrotest PetroOXY apparatus, available from Petrotest. Instruments GmbH & Co, Ludwig-Erhard-Ring 13, 15827 Dahlewitz, Germany, www.petrotest.com. "

“The only source of supply for the device currently known to the committee is the Petrotest PetroOXY, available from Petrotest. Instruments GmbH & Co, Ludwig-Erhard-Ring 13, 15827 Dahlewitz, Germany, www.petrotest.com. "

- ASTM International; ASTM Committee D02 on Petroleum Products and Lubricants; Subcommittee D02.14 on Stability and Cleanliness of Liquid Fuels. ASTM D7545 - 09 Standard Test Method for Oxidation Stability of Middle Distillate Fuels - Rapid Small Scale Oxidation Test (RSSOT), 2009, p. 1, footnote 3 and ASTM D7525 - 09 Standard Test Method for Oxidation Stability of Spark Ignition Fuel - Rapid Small Scale Oxidation Test (RSSOT), 2009, p. 1, footnote 4

For the development of this new measurement method, the company received recognition for particularly innovative results at the “Company Innovation Prize 2007” from the Potsdam Chamber of Industry and Commerce and the “Brandenburg Metal Innovation Prize” from the Brandenburg Ministry of Economics and Energy.