Innovation

Yet the first oven built in 1954 was full of new ideas. That development has not been standing still may be clear from the many innovations:

• Application of the natural gas burner in a newly designed oven in 1960
• The first microprocessor controlled oven in 1982
• Development of the modular system for tunnel rack ovens in 1983
• Usage of a burner with metal fiber to come to a very low emission in 1992
• The first oven produced with the tray-stacking system in 1998
• Application of a PC control for the production line in bakeries, while retaining the ability to control modules locally in 1999

Dijko manages to lead the way by continuously developing it’s products by (among other things) using subsidies which the Dutch government makes available. Because of the unique character of it’s products, Dijko has obtained a special place in the oven world and can boast of worldwide export.

Future

Dijko continuously strives towards the improvement of it’s products. Almost 10% of the sales are currently spent on product-development. The success of this philosophy is clearly shown by the ever increasing sales and the worldwide export of Dijko’s products. Dijko greatly values the quality of it’s products. Dijko can not permit itself to frequently have to go back to the customer for repairs. This is even more critical in foreign countries.

Attracting sufficiently skilled workers can slow down growth, but Dijko does not just give up. Co-workers are trained internally and take part in external education. Because of it’s efforts for the environment and the continuous innovation, Dijko can be assured of a leading place in oven technology, not only in the Netherlands, but also far beyond.

By attending international exhibitions, Dijko will promote their products world-wide. New agents are welcome and will be appointed to establish new markets.

In the past years Dijko also has developed a special industrial oven for treating wood. Wood with a durability class higher than 2 has the nasty property of quickly rotting after being placed in the ground or getting in contact with water. It is possible to make this wood more durable by using a chemical treatment, but it will never be as durable as hardwood. The soil pollution caused by this kind of treatment will in the future surely lead to a prohibition on these methods. The use of hardwood has already caused great environmental problems. A process developed by Plato, in which no chemicals are used, has lead to the great result that softwood (which usually grows quickly) can be transformed into durable wood of class 1 or 2.

The Dijko oven is used in the final phase of the process, the curing of the wood during 12 hours at a temperature of 180 °C. The oven inside is 5 meters wide, 5 m high and 18 m deep. It will be possible to place up to 100,000 kilograms of wood each charge. After being in conversation with Plato for more than one and a half years and having carried out the pre-development of this oven, Dijko commenced with the further development of this oven, which was built up in 2000. When the process proves successful (which almost nobody doubts), Plato will issue licenses worldwide. For Dijko it could be possible to supply it’s oven to the various factories across the world. Finally, a halt can be called to deforestation and the use of hardwood for applications where the Plato wood will prove to be a good replacement.