Letter from our CEO

Mattias Gustavsson
Dr. Mattias Gustavsson, CEO of Hot Disk AB since 2005.

Muting most all other concerns during the recent past, covid-19 has remained a threat and challenge everywhere across the globe. We all now yearn for pandemic relief. Thanks to the rapid development of vaccines and more effective treatments, signs are that 2022 will mark a turning point in our joint battle against the disease. It is our sincere hope that this will prove the case.

We have been blessed of late, despite the difficult times, to mark a significant milestone. The lapse of 2020 marked the passing of a unique quarter century for Hot Disk AB. We have now notched up 25 years and running of dedicated research and development of the unique and absolute Hot Disk TPS method, as realized in our instruments and software. The Hot Disk TPS method remains the undisputed industry and academy standard for a broad range of thermal transport property application scenarios and their affiliated measurements. Hot Disk AB’s searchable database now contains references to thousands of scientific articles, where our instruments are used. We have to date installed over 1 600 Hot Disk TPS systems worldwide. Our company has grown steadily of its own accord, remaining 100% family owned well into its third decade, consistently investing its proceeds in further research and refinement of our products, services and personnel. Hot Disk AB’s vision remains firmly long-term, making for a sturdy company backbone. Our business has stayed vibrant throughout the pandemic. It also reflects the goodwill bestowed upon us by scores of loyal customers, new as well as longstanding, for which we are profoundly grateful.

We are the originators of the Hot Disk (TPS) method, constantly honing and developing its range of applications. There are, to our opinion, no short-cuts to establishing a reputation of quality and performance, reliability and stability. It takes sound knowledge, hard work, a dedication to scientific standards, and time. Hot Disk AB’s focus from the outset has been on customer satisfaction and long-term relationship-building. We have prioritized the ease-of-use, comprehensive range, and precision of our instruments, making them very popular with customers. They can promptly concentrate on analyzing their garnered measurement results, rather than find themselves forced to struggle with the operation and reliability of their equipment. Reflecting their sterling quality, many of our current customers retain their Hot Disk instruments since a decade and more, several now also hitting the twenty-year mark (!). Intent on protecting the value of our customers’ Hot Disk investments, we have since our inception also offered free upgrades in perpetuity of our instrument software, to align with new operating systems as these appear, as well as with novel, in-house-developed Hot Disk features. Thus the future-proofing we offer our clients is based on combining durable hardware with state-of-the-art software.

Our absolute method, rendering calibration obsolete, has been developed over the course of more than half a century. It harks back to the probing and ultimately groundbreaking research of Dr. Silas Gustafsson at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden, begun in the late 1960s. Dr. Gustafsson is still very much with us, taking active part in our research and development, while also internationally sought after as a mentor, supervisor, speaker and reviewer. We are also grateful to Dr. Lars Hälldahl, for his assistance in the early establishment and commercial launch of our technology, beyond the academic laboratory. Today a second and third family generation lead the current operation of the Hot Disk company, as well as contribute to its manufacturing and refinement processes. Creating genuine value for our clients has been our guiding light from the very outset. How can we make what we offer better, easier to use, even more comprehensive? This remains the needle-point of our company compass.

Nothing else would ultimately do in a country having produced Alfred Nobel, and the Swedish Nobel Prize. Our prime carmaker is noted for its long record of high safety and performance standards; our early 1900s originator of radial ball-bearings, whose legacy today is furthered by one of our largest companies, assures the perfectly smooth mechanical operation of countless machines the world over; while our famed precision camera-maker was chosen to document the NASA moon landings. Notably, and perhaps surprising to some, Alfred Nobel wished to award not only scientific and engineering excellence, but also an ethos of idealism, solidarity and shared improvement. Nobel saw their long-term symbiosis as essential to scientific and societal advancement; to a shared increase in human well-being. While the present 21st-century world differs vastly from the 19th-century one Nobel lived and operated in, presenting new challenges, his twin goals remain worthy and relevant.

At Hot Disk AB, in Nobel’s spirit, we maintain an ethos of shared advancement. Our method has been recognized and widely spread by the international ISO 22007-2 standard, during the past decade and more. We continue to work steadily in tandem with industry and academy, and remain committed to delivering accurate, reliable, and reproducible results for our clients through our unparalleled hardware, software, and dedicated staff. We look confidently toward a future of mutual benefit.

 
 

With all best wishes, Gothenburg, February 1, 2022

Mattias Gustavsson, Ph.D.
CEO, Hot Disk AB
S W E D E N