20 Years of PHI GmbH

TIME TO CELEBRATE

MANAGING DIRECTORS TAKE OFF

The year is 2004

A small signature in a Munich notary’s office was the beginning of our entrepreneurial journey.

It was April 2004 when Stefan Reichlmaier and Thomas Gross became the owners of Physical Electronics GmbH after several months of uncertainty, preparation, and negotiation. Our large customer base, motivated employees, and the trust of our first business partner Ulvac-PHI/PHI USA formed the basis at that time.

We hoped to have a long-term and sustainable business ahead of us. Today we can celebrate 20 years and are happy to do so with our valuable customers, business partners and employees.

We are PHI GmbH

responsible.

professional.

friendly.

facts you may not believe

Team Members

Installations EU

Systems serviced

Principals

#PHI❤MOMENTS - From the customer's side

Here, our customers share their curious stories with and about PHI GmbH

Dieter Watzal (Heraeus Deutschland GmbH & Co. KG)

A story comes to mind
With our “PHI 610” AES device at the time, incorrect measurements occurred when spectra in the energy range > 1000 eV were recorded. Strangely enough, the peaks were always in the same place.
Richard Snell was the service engineer at the time. He had been working on the device for some time but was unable to pinpoint the fault. When I asked him about the status shortly before the end of the day, he replied in his “typical slang”: “The device isn’t broken, it’s the element snellium that’s being measured.”

I can think of another one
The Ion Gun 04-303 had a short circuit in the Middle Condensor Lens. Eugen Toma was called in and repaired the device on-site. This defect required the entire gun to be dismantled. Once this was done, the relevant parts were cleaned and reassembled. All the cables needed to be connected to the right terminals, the whole thing was nerve-wracking. Eugen worked the whole time without a break. The work took about half a day. When he had grabbed the last cable with the tweezers and was almost finished, he suddenly said: “Oh, now the cable has broken off, I’ll have to take the part apart again…”
My nerves couldn’t take it, I would have thrown the thing out of the window.

#PHI❤MOMENTS - From the employees' side

What secret stories do our colleagues unlock?

Lars Bangel (Service)
I wake up at night because a drunk man knocks on my room and wants to apologise to his wife… He’s got the wrong floor.

I had to change trains directly on the tracks between Stockholm and Sweden because our train had broken down. A woman, 150cm tall and weighing about 45kg (an employee of the railway group) asked me if she could take my suitcase. I said yes and she couldn’t move it an inch as it weighed 25kg, more than half of hers.

Astrid Last (Service Admin)
The “Flying” Eagle Award was presented to me on a big stage at a service meeting in the USA and fell out of my hand onto the floor. Super embarrassing …

Philipp Leicht (Service)
Wolfgang Klammerstedt was stranded in Turku, Finland for a week. Due to the volcanic eruption in Iceland (Eyjafjallajökull), he had to travel home from Turku by boat. He came home on the day the airport was open again.

Martin Mai (Service)
PHI standard solution:
Almost every unspecified problem in PHI systems is solved by rebooting The first thing we do is ask the customer if they have already rebooted the system. Yes, they have. Please do it again and leave the system off for 15 minutes. Then restart it. System still not working? Do it again.
I was at the customer site and ran into unknown problems. I have restarted the system and left it off for 15 minutes. Did not help. I asked Dirk for help and he told me to turn the system off for 15 minutes. I did as I was told and the system was up and running again.

A small extract of our development over the last 20 years

PHI GmbH TIMELINE

15 Apr 2004

The management handover from Ken Bomben (PHI-USA) took place on 15 April 2004 at 11:20 a.m. From 11:21 a.m. Thomas and Stefan were managing directors of Physical Electronics GmbH.
13 employees form the starting team.

8 Oct 2004

First GmbH meeting

10 Sep 2005

The first new manufacturer was acquired as a partner company.

2004-2006

Strengthening the team, developing sales expertise, building up the service team, and bringing calm to the company. Celebrate first sales successes: SmartTool, learn what it means to run a company, PHI GmbH is profitable and there is a positive spirit of optimism. Decision to establish further principals.
We designed our own logo and our first website. Many business trips to the USA for customer demonstrations.
Publicising the fact that PHI GmbH is back on the market.

2007-2012

The company continues to grow, the product portfolio is expanded, we expand sales, create a marketing department and provide analytical support.

2013

Launch of the contract laboratory: first NanoX-Pert in April 2013

2013-2019

Establishment of Contract Lab, own XPS and Tof-SIMS systems, NanoX-Pert seminars, investments in sales, service, etc.

Summer 2019

Moving to Feldkirchen

until today

Many new headmasters, our combination of sales/marketing/service is in demand. We offer niche manufacturers fast market access and our customers the latest technology with proven service. New website, new marketing, etc.

PHI SALES

We take over the distribution for niche manufacturers and thus enable small, innovative companies to effectively access the market in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Our Sales Mission