PER-FIL® Industries
Company Profile

Designing and Manufacturing the Industry's highest quality auger filling equipment solutions since 1974.

When he was only 17 years old, Horst traveled to America with only the clothes on his back and a strong belief that America was the land of opportunity. He quickly got a job as an apprentice Service Technician for Perry Industries, a company that specialized in filling equipment for the pharmaceutical industry. After several years, Horst worked his way up to Plant Manager.

His belief in the "American Dream" remained strong and he was anxious for the day when he could start his own business. The opportunity came when Perry was purchased by The BEMIS Corporation. They decided to discontinue a line of auger filling equipment which they felt was unprofitable. Horst approached the owners about buying this line so that he could start his own business. Rather than sell the line, they gave the line to Horst with nothing more than a handshake, and PER-FIL® INDUSTRIES INC. was born! PER-FIL® was named by Horst's 8 year old daughter Robyn (who later came to work for the company for many years), the name stands for PERFECT FILLING.

The first few years were very difficult for PER-FIL® with Horst and his partner working 18 hour days. They spent the days selling auger fillers and evenings designing and building. During the early years, PER-FIL® used a shotgun approach to sales; selling equipment to the Food, Pharmaceutical, Chemical and Cosmetic Industries. As the company grew, Horst realized that a targeted approach to marketing would be more successful. At Perry, he had some experience servicing equipment for filling toner at Xerox. He believed he could customize the PER-FIL® auger filler to meet the special requirements of this difficult product.

PER-FIL® began developing equipment which provided dust-free, accurate dispensing of toner without causing flakes or particles. Horst presented PER-FIL's concept drawings and test results to Xerox. They were so impressed that they cancelled an order with a competitive auger manufacturer, to place an order with PER-FIL® for four complete packaging lines. This order changed PER-FIL's direction and vision. From that point on, PER-FIL® concentrated on designing and manufacturing equipment for the toner industry. During the period from 1985 - 1998, PER-FIL® sales to the toner industry (OEMs and Independents) accounted for 70-90 % (depending on the year) of total filling equipment sales. With the remaining equipment being sold to Food, Pharmaceutical, Cosmetic and Chemical companies.

In 1990, PER-FIL® began working with companies in the Toner Cartridge Recycle Industry. From 1990 to 1994, PER-FIL® sold a few fillers to recyclers. Although still in its infancy, the growth potential for cartridge recycling was obvious to Horst, but he recognized that recyclers had very different needs from the OEMs. Recyclers were remanufacturing a high volume of cartridges, but the cartridges were of many different types. The recyclers needed a flexible filling system that could fill a variety of different cartridges with very little clean-up or changeover time. Many recyclers were small operations without in-house maintenance or engineering staff, so a durable, low maintenance filler was required. Additionally, many recyclers were start-up operations beginning to grow but without a lot of money to invest in capital equipment. These recyclers required a low cost filling system and flexible payment options.

Then, one night in 1994 on a flight from Texas to Philadelphia, Horst developed the concept for a small, portable auger filler specifically for the Recycle Industry. This small flexible filling system would use bulk toner in plastic bags. The operator would place the sealed bag inside the machine and it would be cut open inside the machine to eliminate airborne dust. Disassembly and reassembly of the machine would be done by turning hand knobs (rather than using tools) to make cleaning and changeover very simple and very fast. This design featured an electric box that could be easily removed from the filler and returned to the manufacturer for repair. From sketches on an airplane napkin, PER-FIL®'s Model MR-1 MICRO-RECHARGER® came to be the most widely used toner filler system in the Recycle Industry.

The Recycle Industry is such an important part of PER-FIL's business that they have assigned a sales engineer whose sole responsibility is to service recycle customers. Dave Eberhardt Jr. joined PER-FIL® in August of 2000. He is responsible for sales of all equipment to the Recycle Industry. Assisting David in servicing recyclers are Doug (Service Manager) and JP (Parts Manager). Doug answers questions on operation and maintenance via phone, fax or email and, when requested, provides in-the-field service support. JP quotes and ships any replacement parts for the filling equipment.

In 2001, PER-FIL® completed a building expansion to add more office and manufacturing space. This addition included a state-of-the-art test laboratory for filling equipment demonstrations to the pharmaceutical and bio-tech industries.

In 2002, PER-FIL® introduced the nano-Filler to meet the needs of Pharmaceutical and Bio-tech companies that needed an accurate filling system for 25 mg to 25 gr of powder, granular and paste products.

In 2009, PER-FIL® celebrated our 35th year in business. A major part of our success is our loyal and dedicated workforce. Employees celebrating anniversaries with PER-FIL® this year:
• Hector Santiago, 40 years (Springside Metal Products)
• Horst Boellmann, 35 years
• Ron Frangione, 25 years
• Shari Becker, 20 years
• Gary Mucklow, 15 years (Springside Metal Products)
• Steve Miszencin, 15 years

After 35 years in business, PER-FIL® remains a vibrant, innovative company with 25 employees in the US and sales offices in Europe and Japan. PER-FIL's vision for the future is to design and build innovative filling systems for the world. This equipment will combine high performance with maintenance free operation. PER-FIL's focus for 2002 is to re-establish a dominant presence in the Food, Pharmaceutical Chemical, Cosmetic and Household Goods Industries.

For 2010 and beyond, PER-FIL® will continue to innovate and provide our customers with the best filling equipment solutions and world-class customer service to exceed their expectations!

There are several things that make PER-FIL® unique. Their experienced engineering staff stays on the leading edge of filling and control system technology. Extensive application experience has resulted in new filler concepts, including the patented Multi-Spindle Servo Filler.

PER-FIL® is housed in a building that used to be the local roller skating rink. Many times a customer or visitor will reminisce about Saturday afternoons spent skating and laughing with friends. More than one visitor has said "this is where I met my wife!" This building features 30 ft ceilings and hardwood floors in the plant and the lunchroom is where kids used to rent their skates.

PER-FIL's building has a charm that is hard define but clearly palpable when walking through it. In September 2002, PER-FIL® completed a 10,000 square foot addition to their facility. The addition incorporate many design features of the original structure. This addition includes factory and office space, as well as a state-of-the-art sanitary demonstration area set up like a clean room for food and pharmaceutical demos.

PER-FIL's sister company, Springside Metal Products, manufactures most of the parts that are assembled to become PER-FIL® fillers. Springside is located in a separate facility less than one mile from PER-FIL®. The latest CNC equipment assures only the highest quality parts are made. Springside has been in business for over 50 years and was purchased by Horst in 1978 . Although much of Springside's work is for PER-FIL®, this is an independent machine shop which also does work for other customers. While all of these things help to make PER-FIL® special and contribute to the highest quality filling equipment, the most special thing about PER-FIL® is not a thing at all; it is the people of PER-FIL® Industries. PER-FIL's diverse workforce includes immigrants from Germany, Russia, and Puerto Rico, as well as life long Riverside residents. Each employee brings different talents and abilities that result in the finest filling equipment and best customer service. To fully appreciate how special PER-FIL® is, one need only look at the average length of employment ... which is 10 years! Last Christmas, PER-FIL's Christmas luncheon included a celebration for a father and son, Eduardo Trani and Ron Trani, who completed 40 years and 20 years with the company. It speaks volumes when a father enjoys and takes pride in his job so much, that his child desires to work there too!