Worldwide success with "Moppology"

With expert know-how and the highest quality, even such achievements are possible: While Chinese companies flood the domestic and European markets with cheap cleaning devices, Chinese enterprises focusing on cleanroom production rely on the specialized products of Pfennig Cleaning Technology from Oberallgäu Durach. And recently, the company has also established a presence in India. As part of its continuous business expansion, the brand appearance has now been renewed to ensure that the family business's name can be immediately and clearly associated: The well-known industry term "PPS" (Pfennig Profi-System) is now simply "Pfennig".

The company offers pretty much everything for specialized cleaning that is mechanical and not machine-based. "But in epic depth," says Dietmar Pfennig (52), who runs the company together with his wife Petra. Just recently, the third generation has joined the company after completing their studies, along with their two sons.

The company holds dozens of patents, for example for their dosing system "MopScoop," developed within three years. A European patent has been granted for this, as well as an American one, and it is registered in China. The company boss has coined the term "Moppology." He is visibly somewhat proud of it and has had it protected. Pfennig develops all products himself, even the tools for external production. The assembly then takes place again in their own facility. The textiles manufactured for cleanrooms and externally certified hardly shed any particles themselves—at most, only as many as are permitted in the respective cleanroom classes. They are sterilizable, and disinfectants can be applied in precisely defined amounts. The Allgäu entrepreneur also emphasizes another point: "Since 1998, we have been working to replace industry-standard disposable systems in cleanrooms with a functioning reusable concept." This is anything but easy to implement: The high-performance functional textiles must withstand sterilization at 134 degrees Celsius. And up to 50 times, until a limit determined by a research institute is reached. Without sterilization, the textiles can even be used 100 times in cleanrooms, and in hospitals, up to 500 applications are possible.

With the "MopScoop" system, a dosing accuracy of 99 percent for the cleaning and disinfectant agents used is achieved through just two moving parts. It is Pfennig's most successful product to date. The entrepreneur often refers to this device as "mechanical intelligence," because they have managed to largely eliminate unintentional misuse and thus make the cleaning and disinfection process verifiable. For product research and presentation, Pfennig has a cleanroom in their own company. A laboratory technician meticulously measures the application strength and residues after wiping procedures with various wiping cloths and cleaning and disinfecting agents.

Pfennig is quite proud of its market penetration: "Anyone who buys medication from a major pharmaceutical company today can assume that their products are cleaned in one of their factories with our products." Although the "MopScoop" system was designed for use in cleanrooms, it is not only used there. "With this device," says the company boss, "we also bring the hygiene standards of cleanrooms into hospitals."

The trained building cleaning master and state-certified disinfectant Pfennig contributed to DIN 16063 for hospital cleaning. This regulation first standardized the assignment of contracts and cooperation between clinics and cleaning service providers, including the definition of responsibilities, procurement procedures, and quality management systems. The DIN standard was published in 2021. Previously, procurement criteria for service providers were primarily dominated by price, and "people were surprised that it didn't work in practice" (Pfennig). Now, the value of the newly introduced quality standards is increasingly recognized.

The Pfennig corporate group, with a branch in Switzerland and a production site in Saxony, employs 100 staff members and is currently seeking additional employees. Over the past ten years, its revenue has doubled to 15 million euros.