Jiří Vyskočil
Quite by chance I met Karol Forycki at the Thermoprocess 2023 trade fair in Dusseldorf. He told me it was just a jump, he was basically going to Venlo to celebrate 40 years of Hauzer Coating Company. So it reminded me of a bit of my history.
Back in the days of VVZ Liberec, the research and development base of ZEZ Praha in Liberec, it was decided to develop equipment for TiN deposition based on a low-voltage arc. At that time, I met Jirka Vyskočil. In cooperation with him and the Academy of Sciences, with Dr. Musil, the NNO 150 device was created. Even from that time, the publication Thin layers of titanium nitride, published in 1989, was created by Jiri and Dr. Musil. Our destinies were linked by another person, Prof. Dr. Wolf-Dieter Münz from Leybold, later Professor Emeritus at Sheffield Hallam University. It was I who with Dr. Munz put into operation the first equipment for PVD deposition with two pairs of planar magnetrons in Czechoslovakia at VVZ Liberec, and Jirka took full advantage of this familiarity.
When the revolution came, Jirka focused on the practical side of PVD technology and with Dr. Munz founded HVM Plasma on March 31, 1992. Our HT-PROGRES was born 6 month later. He began to deal with the production of planar magnetrons and planetary fixtures for coating machines from the Hauzer company from Holland. But since at that time the Hauzer company belonged to the Bodycote group, we met again at the time when our HT-PROGRES switched from the French HIT Group to Bodycote. But Jirka was also active in heat treatment and participated in the creation of the Heat Praha Group with operations in Prague, Příbram, Pilsen and Brno Modřice. After the acquisition of Heat Praha by Bodycote, these heat treatment operations were also transferred to Bodycote, so we became joint CEO of a large complex of heat treatment plants in Czech Republic, together with Jirka Svoboda, today the owner of the Master Therm heat pump company.
But Jirka gave up in 2004, he could no longer do everything, and left Bodycote. After all, his goals were higher than he could apply in hardening. PVD technologies became his destiny.
I was looking for some photos from that time, but time has taken them somewhere. So, it was left like this, from my 50th birthday celebration in 2001 in Krásná Lípa at my friend’s cottage. His gift was a set of artifacts from totalism, including the Order of socialist self-sacrificing Work.
Jirka and I had in common the determination to find a goal. I in hardening, he in deposition technology. Unlike me, Jirka was really intelligent, with a sense for new things and processes. What he accomplished is not immediately apparent. Finally, Hauzer himself, through Michiel Eerden, Hauzer Sales Director, appreciates his role as follows:
“Great partners are critical to long-term success. For Hauzer, one such partner is HVM Plasma. “Their technology is at the heart of Hauzer equipment,” says Michiel Eerden, Sales Director. 30 years ago, PVD was only accepted for cutting tools. It is now a critical technology also for decorative and tribological coatings and for the growing fuel cell market”
“We want to deliver industrial solutions, real robust production workers. The quality of the HVM products we use in our machines, such as cathodes and tables, is critical to achieving this. We see this every day in the long service life of our machines. Jiří and HVM are a great partner in the development of new technologies, for example CARC+ technology, which caused our revival in the tool industry. This was developed with HVM to enable the cathodes to be put into operation”
What to say about that. It’s amazing and I bow deeply to what Jirka has done. In the end, I also collaborated with him for a long time on PVD coating, both on magnetrons and low-voltage arc, and he even made me an opponent for a candidate’s thesis on the combination of TiN and plasma nitriding. And even though our contacts are not so frequent anymore, we know each other well.
So good luck Jiří next 40 years
June 20, 2023
