About us
How it all started
2015
2016
2023
2015
Karel and Pavel have been providing (and servicing) lyophilizers to Czech and Slovak laboratories for over 10 years. Seeing the growing demand for lyophilizers in the food processing business, they tried to convince their existing suppliers and new ones as well that a market existed for equipment with a capacity of a few kilograms that doesn’t cost a fortune.
When no one wanted to make an affordable device for small businesses, they started their own company and invited Jan to join them. Partly because he’s an electrical engineer, and partly because three heads are better than two (and more hands get more done). We set up in two basement rooms of an apartment building in Prague 6 and got to work.
It took us two years to develop our own lyophilizer. Karel and Pavel knew what did and didn’t work in dozens of laboratories, but perfecting their new machine still took hundreds of hours of research, brainstorming, negotiating, testing and trials. The testing phase began in summer 2017, when the Brno testing institute issued the certification needed to put the product on the market.
In the end we managed to make a fully functional lyophilizer that is not only entirely automatic, i.e. does not require users to enter a large number of parameters or have a detailed understanding of the process, but also composed primarily of Czech parts, with just a few from elsewhere in the EU or the USA. And so AMARU was born.
Another way not to make a vacuum chamber
Where did the name AMARU come from? Túpac Amaru was the last ruler of the Incan Empire and according to some sources the Incas were the first to freeze-dry their food. Túpac Amaru was later killed by Spanish colonizers, but his name became a symbol of resistance to oppression in Peru. AMARU is also easy to pronounce in different languages.
The year after getting our certificates we found the first pioneers wanting to start making their own lyophilized foods instead of importing.
Growing sales meant that we could improve our workshop equipment in late 2018. A new drill and miter saw for working with metal, 3D printer for continued development of AMARU and making small series of plastic parts all helped AMARU keep improving and especially speed up the drying process. In the vast majority of cases we were able to offer new developments to our existing customers as well, improving their efficiency.
Investing back into development, testing and trials of new possibilities paid off: In 2019 we presented a completely reworked shelfing system at the trade fair For Gastro & Hotel that sped up the drying process by up to 33%. Perhaps that was why we won 1st place in Technology and Equipment at the GRAND PRIX in Prague.
In 2020 we worked with a Czech supplier to develop a new cooling unit that met the EU regulations for F-gases and also managed to improve cooling performance, cutting drying time by another approx. 15%. We were also able to hire a company and graphic designer to design new firmware for our lyophilizers.
The following year it was quite difficult to maintain production in the basement of an Art Nouveau house in Prague and so new production premises were sought. Rudná u Prahy finally offered them, where the production was completely moved and suddenly it was possible to move around while working on the machines. It was necessary to build a loading ramp and electrify the entrance gate, but from that moment on, the transporters no longer looked down on us for wanting to dump several kilograms of material in the basement of an apartment building.
The years 2021 and 2022 had two things in common. Orders tripled (at which point one is glad to be in more spacious production), but parts supply also began to tighten. The so-called materials crisis affected many manufacturers around the world and did not escape the production of lyophilizers. Pfeiffer Vacuum pumps gradually left delivery times of around 3 weeks, reaching a sad record of 52 weeks delivery from order at the end of 2022. Fortunately, we were always able to resolve the outages satisfactorily. So some of the units produced have the Leybold pumps that AMARU once started out with, and other times we have got second-hand pumps from the eBay marketplace that we have had to have reconditioned and given to users as loans until the next batch of new pumps arrived.
In 2023 - 2024, we did not slack off, although the sharp increase in energy prices did not only cost us more money on our own bills, but it was noticeable that many stakeholders were also more concerned about energy consumption. Lyophilizers are generally not among the most environmentally friendly devices. Everything bad can be good for something, and so people have become more interested in waste heat recovery, which at AMARU is provided by DEHEATER.
Not to be short of innovation, we have introduced a new 7-shelf system. We originally planned it for herbs and various low water content products, but our customers themselves convinced us that the use of the 2 extra product shelves is much wider.
We are LYOTRADE
Pavel Johan
Founder
proxy holder
technical developer
service technician
welder
CAD designer
assembly technician
software developer
Karel Schmiedberger
Founder
managing director
sales representative
marketing
webmaster
assembly technician
driver
CAD designer
Ing. Jan Grym
Security manager
buyer
electrican
assembly technician
quality control manager
documentation manager
service technician
tester
Follow us
LYOTRADE is constantly evolving and every year we have several new products to introduce. Our newsletter subscribers will be the first to hear about them. You don't have to worry about a cluttered email inbox. On average, we send one newsletter every two months.
We post new photos and short videos on Instagram almost all the time. It's such a quick way to find out what we're working on, where we delivered the next lyophilizer or what new product we're working on.
Here we also sometimes post test results of what AMARU dries, but compared to YouTube, every now and then you'll also find a post about what can be created with the product.
After Instagram, YouTube is our second main channel. There we upload videos of most of our tests so you can see for yourself what freeze-dried CBD, herbs, yogurt or ice cream looks like.
But in addition, we also upload video tutorials for AMARU owners on YouTube, where you can easily remind how to change the oil in the vacuum pump, adjust the recipe or troubleshoot any problems.
YouTube Lyotrade
Proudly made in Czechia
We produce AMARU ourselves with a preference for European suppliers.
By ordering AMARU, you support not only three guys from Prague, but also people working at Thyracont Vacuum (Germany), Pfeiffer Vacuum (Austria), Leybold (Germany), La Tôlerie Plastique (France), Fillamentum (Czechia), Schrack (Austria) and others...
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lyotrade@lyotrade.cz
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