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Engineering Profit: TechSource's Next-Gen Freeze Dryers Are Redefining Industry Standards
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May 15, 2025
Discover the world of commercial freeze-drying with TechSource Systems, a leading manufacturer based in Ogden, Utah. In this episode of Freeze-Drying Entrepreneurs, we sit down with CEO Matt Pettit to explore the cutting-edge technology behind their industrial freeze-drying machines. Our in-depth discussion delves into the vast potential of freeze-drying and how it can revolutionize your business operations. Whether you're looking to scale up your existing venture or curious about the possibilities freeze-drying offers, this interview provides valuable insights and expert guidance to help you navigate the exciting opportunities in this exciting industry. Become a Member of this channel and support my efforts to connect the freeze-drying industry through more video content just like this. Thank you! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCicmjUC8pG_3jwFo9m-va1g/join Join my weekly newsletter for more new and tips on the freeze-drying industry: https://freezedriedbusiness.com/ Subscribe for more videos https://youtube.com/@freezedriedbusiness Check out TechSource Systems here: https://techsourcesystems.com/ Matt Pettit - Matt@techsourcesystems.com Troy Pettit - troy@techsourcesystems.com *Let him know you watched this interview The Frozen Assets Podcast series is all about exploring the world of the freeze-drying industry and hopefully inspiring you to achieve more in your business by looking at current entrepreneurs and companies in this growing industry. Full Playlist of Frozen Assets Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL8uz0_2xUyEIGWHjImLMBkll8M0ykaama Frozen Assets Podcast (Rate & Review PLEASE!) Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/frozen-assets-freeze-drying-for-entrepreneurs/id1722696670 🎙️ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/2EtZ1eKJjXYCgG7rM9H2oe
View Video Transcript
0:00
hey I've got some very exciting people
0:01
for you to meet today we're at Tech
0:03
Source systems this is a commercial
0:05
freeze dryer company in Ogden Utah
0:08
fortunate to be sitting here with Matt
0:09
Pettit who is the CEO of Tech Source
0:12
systems we're going to find out a lot
0:13
about this company's Origins what they
0:16
focus on when they build a custom
0:18
commercial freeze dryer and when it
0:20
makes sense to look into this when
0:22
you're starting your freeze drying
0:24
business and looking to grow Beyond just
0:26
those starting out freeze dryers that we
0:27
all use
0:29
[Music]
0:31
tell us a little bit about tech stor
0:33
systems and why you started this company
0:35
okay first of all David thanks for being
0:36
here we really appreciate it appreciate
0:38
the opportunity to be on your channel um
0:41
Tech Source systems hasn't been around
0:43
very long we've only been in business
0:44
about 5 years uh it kind of started out
0:47
um I was hired by a company that made um
0:53
space simulation Chambers and they had
0:56
taken a purchase order to make uh freeze
0:59
dryer because of course to them a a
1:02
freeze dryer was not much more than a a
1:05
vacuum chamber and they learned very
1:07
quickly that that's not the case they
1:09
hired me to come on board to help them
1:11
figure that out it took me a couple of
1:13
years a very large investment on my part
1:17
uh time and finances I brought in my
1:20
nephew uh Troy who is now the vice
1:24
president of Tech Source and we
1:26
completed a a viable uh freeze drve
1:29
drying system one of the things we did
1:33
uh in the design of that system is we
1:36
contacted uh some companies that were
1:38
doing commercial freeze drying and we
1:40
said what are your pain points what are
1:42
the things that make freeze drying
1:45
difficult for you or or make it um hard
1:49
for you to be able to do your job I made
1:51
a list of those and those are things
1:52
that we incorporated into our designs so
1:56
uh we started out really with the
1:58
customer in mind and we try to keep that
2:01
u in mind today uh kind of our our motto
2:05
is that what is good for our customer
2:09
long term is more important than what's
2:11
good for us short term and so that's
2:14
what we really strive for yeah freeze
2:15
dry found me and uh it is something that
2:18
we're definitely passionate about
2:21
because we found that there are
2:23
opportunities that are available that
2:25
are not being taken advantage of and
2:28
that we're really surprised that they
2:30
weren't being taken advantage of and
2:32
excited to be able to bring them to the
2:34
[Music]
2:36
market what what type of applications
2:39
have you seen that has been the most
2:41
common with your clients today but also
2:45
what have you seen that you're really
2:47
fascinated about and you can tell us
2:48
more uh one of the big surprises for us
2:51
is the amount of freeze drying for pet
2:54
treats and Pet Food U there's probably
2:56
more freeze drying being done for pet
2:59
treats and pet food than there is for
3:00
human food and for us that was very very
3:04
uh surprising but it turns out that
3:06
people will pay more money to feed their
3:08
pet then they will to feed their kids so
3:11
that's the
3:12
truth so uh that was very very
3:14
surprising but then of course uh there's
3:17
the standard freeze drying uh things
3:19
freeze drying food uh whether it's uh
3:22
meat or fruits and vegetables uh I
3:25
recently was invited to go to a u uh
3:28
meeting with n
3:30
where they specifically talked about
3:31
freeze drying for space uh use and uh
3:36
that's that's a really exciting thing
3:38
that we see in the future of course
3:40
candy is probably the one that really
3:42
stands out and has really made a
3:44
difference and it's kind of bootstrapped
3:47
what we've been doing um because a lot
3:51
of our customers have started with the
3:53
candy business using a countertop freeze
3:57
dryer and have had issues uh Bridging
4:00
the Gap between that Boutique market and
4:03
moving to the commercial market and
4:06
that's really where we have been able to
4:09
get our foot in the door and help them
4:11
become successful in that effort it's
4:13
easy to to look down the rabbit hole of
4:16
of candy just because it's the freeze
4:19
drying process through the vacuum and
4:21
heat has really just been like like what
4:23
is this new type of candy it's really
4:26
great but freeze drying has been around
4:27
for a long time so it's fun to kind of
4:30
know what types of applications uh that
4:33
are outside of candy that people can
4:34
[Music]
4:37
do so what type of freeze drives are you
4:40
building I mean size-wise you know what
4:43
types of capacity we're used to on the
4:46
you know countertop units for people
4:48
that have you know five or six Home Free
4:50
Dyers running a business you know you're
4:52
used to to running you know more of a
4:54
large type size where you're running 10
4:56
to 12 lbs uh sometimes a little bit
4:59
larger with some the XL units but like
5:01
what is a commercial freeze dry company
5:02
building for people okay we start out
5:05
with our um um intro unit which which
5:10
we've affectionately du dubbed our big
5:12
baby uh it's it's it's big compared to
5:16
the countertop systems but for us it's a
5:19
baby and that originally had 11
5:21
full-size baking trays and so that's a
5:24
capacity depending on the loading of the
5:25
tray starting in the 75 lb range that
5:28
was a turn ke system that basically you
5:31
could roll in a door fit through a
5:32
standard door plug it in everything's on
5:35
board and um we learned a lot from it
5:39
people love it um however it was noisier
5:44
than we liked and uh It produced a lot
5:47
of heat and so we did a gen two which we
5:50
call our bigger baby uh that has an
5:54
outside refrigeration unit the
5:56
refrigeration is set outside uh we have
6:00
lines that come in feeding the fluid to
6:02
the CH uh Chiller plates and um that is
6:06
much quieter the heat goes outside and
6:08
the capacity on that is 20 uh three
6:12
full-size baking trays wow and so that's
6:15
that's more on the on the range of of
6:18
150 to 180 lbs per
6:21
[Music]
6:24
batch when you're talking about this you
6:27
know I owe my own freeze drying business
6:29
and I'm not looking to expand that large
6:32
to go commercial but for someone
6:34
watching this who is like it still looks
6:37
very intimidating to go full commercial
6:39
freeze dryer maybe that's because of
6:41
space needed maybe it's because it seems
6:45
like it's over complicated for
6:46
technology wise uh maybe it seems like I
6:49
need to have more clientele and I need
6:52
to have more sales why is going
6:54
commercial intimidating and if it's not
6:57
why do you think going commercial with
6:58
your freeze dryers would change that
7:00
opinion okay F first of all to to
7:03
address the 500 lb gorilla in the room
7:06
is uh the cost because when you buy a
7:09
countertop system you're looking between
7:11
the $3 to $5,000 range something in that
7:14
area uh when our original big baby was
7:18
uh about
7:19
$78,000 the bigger baby is
7:22
$135,000 those numbers are huge when
7:26
when somebody is used to buying
7:27
something uh very inex expensive the
7:31
difference is that the countertop
7:34
systems were designed and built as an
7:38
appliance and an
7:40
appliance inherently has to use
7:43
inexpensive uh components and they're
7:47
just not built to run 247
7:50
365 when we build our systems they are
7:53
built to run 24/7 365 really it's not
7:59
only the capacity and the reduced
8:02
footprint but it's the maintenance that
8:06
is in effect much lower maintenance and
8:09
the higher throughput so if you have uh
8:12
say 15 or even 30 of the countertop
8:15
systems you can replace those with one
8:17
or two small machines and uh your uh
8:22
output your quality is is going to be
8:25
such that it's very easy to carry the
8:28
load of that car
8:33
so let's talk a little bit about the the
8:35
actual freeze dryers that you're making
8:37
and then I want to talk to you about
8:39
more of the the what makes the right fit
8:41
for a customer but let's talk about the
8:43
machines a little bit so what makes teex
8:45
Source unique in the commercial freeze
8:48
drying Market in the commercial freeze
8:50
drying Market I think that one of the
8:51
things that makes us different is our
8:53
level of customer service uh we uh will
8:58
put customers service above just about
9:00
anything if a customer needs something
9:03
we will absolutely do whatever it takes
9:05
to do it and we probably carry that too
9:07
far we would rather do that than not do
9:10
it enough and suffer the consequences of
9:13
that and so customer service is
9:15
definitely one of the things that makes
9:17
a difference the other thing is using
9:20
the technology that is
9:22
available that has not been used to date
9:26
uh there's a lot of things that we've
9:28
implemented into our freeze dryers that
9:30
have been around for years but have just
9:33
not been implemented into freeze drying
9:35
so using appropriate technology uh to be
9:38
able to enhance the freeze drying
9:40
experience one of the biggest things uh
9:43
is the removable shelf uh in freeze
9:46
drying your shelves are heated uh
9:48
typically uh in other systems these are
9:51
hardwired or hard plumbed into the
9:54
product uh rack ours are removable so
9:57
you can take the heater out you can wash
9:59
the heater you can take all of the
10:01
heaters out you can uh wash and sanitize
10:04
the rack that they come in this is
10:06
something that's absolutely impossible
10:08
uh with other systems so that is one one
10:11
thing that really makes us different the
10:13
other thing is the uh the control of the
10:16
process we have 48 heaters in our
10:18
fullsize rack that split into three
10:22
sections each of those sections in the
10:24
middle has a special heater that has
10:28
temperature transmitter embedded in the
10:30
heater so we know exactly what the
10:33
temperature of the heater itself is you
10:35
can't get that by just putting a thermal
10:37
couple in somewhere uh which is
10:40
typically done so in order to be able to
10:43
have very fine control of the process
10:45
you've got to have uh good data and so
10:48
those embedded temperature transmitters
10:50
are what allow us to be able to control
10:52
not just the the rack as as a whole but
10:57
each section of the rack
10:59
so that your yield is better your
11:02
control is better your quality is better
11:05
so that's one of the things that really
11:06
really sets us apart from other
11:10
[Music]
11:12
manufacturers hey thanks for making it
11:14
this far in the interview and there's so
11:16
much more to come if you could do me a
11:17
favor right now and give this video a
11:19
thumbs up it really helps a YouTube
11:22
algorithm know whether to recommend this
11:24
video out to more and more people who
11:26
are looking at freeze drying and don't
11:27
forget to watch the second part of my
11:29
visit to Tech Source systems where I
11:31
actually go behind the scenes in their
11:33
facility where Matt shows me the racks
11:35
the technology everything about their
11:37
freeze dryers in their facility so check
11:40
that out let's get back to the interview
11:41
when you're going commercial you know
11:43
usually you're in some type of FDA
11:45
regulated type of facility depending on
11:47
what you're handling so with your
11:49
clientele buying your product I hear the
11:52
term NSF certifi those types of things
11:54
so how do you overcome some of the
11:57
federal government type of regulations
12:00
with your with your freeze dryers are
12:02
they are they accepted how do your
12:05
clients kind of overcome that yeah
12:07
absolutely one of the big things is just
12:08
what we talked about with being able to
12:11
sanitize the shelves and the racks uh
12:14
that's a huge step forward so the uh
12:17
USDA loves that uh the U the customers
12:21
love that that's a big step forward and
12:23
being able to uh assure the the quality
12:26
and safety of the product uh the other
12:29
thing is is that our Chambers are washed
12:31
down uh the entire chamber can be on the
12:35
production floor so the entire chamber
12:37
can be washed down or like a lot of our
12:40
customers do just the access door is in
12:43
the processing room and the rest of the
12:45
chamber is behind that door and uh so
12:48
that's a a facilities area uh but still
12:52
our Chambers are washed down compatible
12:54
uh so that's one of the other things we
12:56
do so that the entire thing is
12:59
uh cleanable and you can sanitize the
13:02
entire
13:03
[Music]
13:05
thing why do you want an individual
13:08
heated you know rack that has a tray on
13:11
it why does that matter versus what
13:14
we've seen in some of the countertop
13:15
units where it's it's all connected or
13:17
even some of the other commercial freeze
13:19
dryer companies why does why does that
13:21
make a
13:22
difference um it it makes a difference u
13:26
in in several ways one is definitely in
13:29
being able to keep it clean the other
13:31
one is in replaceability if you uh like
13:34
on a countertop system if you have a a
13:37
rack that needs that has a bad heater
13:40
you pretty much have to replace that
13:42
whole rack um and same is true on
13:45
Commercial freeze dryers that have wired
13:47
in heaters uh you have to uh it's very
13:51
difficult to replace this for
13:53
ours we've never had a heater go bad yet
13:56
but if a heater did go bad it's simp
13:59
pulling it out plugging in a new one
14:02
[Music]
14:04
awesome when you look at your customers
14:06
today Matt that have your freeze dryers
14:09
how do they how does someone who is
14:12
thinking about this how do they know
14:14
what type of facility they need to
14:15
support this power um like is there
14:20
common things that you're seeing with
14:21
your customers that a a new customer
14:25
needs to have in place to be successful
14:27
once they have this commercial freeze
14:28
driver from you that brings up a good
14:30
point because we really have kind of two
14:32
kinds of customers that we deal with we
14:34
have customers that have already done
14:36
commercial freeze drying and so when
14:38
they see our systems they're able to
14:40
pick up immediately what is going on and
14:44
what the benefits are and so it's very
14:46
easy for them to integrate our system
14:48
into their existing process where we
14:51
have customers that start with the uh
14:54
countertop systems there's a very
14:58
significant learning curve that they
15:00
have to go through in order to be able
15:02
to do this and so what we've uh tried to
15:04
do is make sure that we work hand inand
15:07
with our customers so that they know
15:09
exactly what is required for the
15:11
facility what's required for the um
15:15
utilities and then not only that how to
15:18
go about integrating our system into
15:21
their facilities so we'll actually go in
15:24
when we start talking to a customer and
15:26
they'll say well okay we want it in this
15:28
area we'll actually visit that
15:30
facility and we'll do a 3D model of the
15:33
facility we'll put a 3D model of our
15:37
products the chamber the chiller the
15:40
vacuum pump uh including all of the
15:43
piping so that they know exactly where
15:45
all of that needs to go and then we'll
15:48
work with them further on saying okay
15:51
now if you're doing this kind of a
15:52
product in the case of say meats or
15:56
fruits and vegetables they need to be
15:58
aware that they need to have a packing
16:00
room that has very low humidity and so
16:03
help them to plan for a a dry packout
16:06
room and um and then if they are doing
16:10
that type of product they're going to
16:11
have to have a freezer so that will help
16:13
them understand what kind of a freezer
16:15
they need and what facilities they need
16:18
to be able to have to support that
16:20
freezer and help them develop the
16:23
process for movement of the racks from
16:26
place to place from freezer to freeze
16:28
drug dryer from freeze dryer to pack out
16:31
from pack out to cleaning and so on and
16:33
so
16:33
[Music]
16:36
forth does a commercial freeze dryer
16:39
speed up a freeze drying process because
16:41
more refined AB absolutely a countertop
16:44
freeze dryer will basically um add heat
16:48
until the pressure comes up they look at
16:50
the pressure they shut off the heat and
16:52
that pressure will sit and bounce until
16:55
it gets down to secondary drying and
16:58
then it'll ra the temperature until you
17:01
assume that the secondary dryer is done
17:04
and and that's kind of experimental
17:07
until you you get to that point yep what
17:09
we're able to do is instead of having it
17:13
do that bouncing we're able to control
17:15
the parameters so that you control how
17:19
much heat is going into it uh and keep
17:21
it at the
17:23
maximum uh set point that you want to
17:26
achieve the results that you want
17:29
fantastic so yeah it definitely reduces
17:33
the the process
17:37
time so Matt if I'm someone who's
17:40
watching this video never heard of Tech
17:42
Source systems before but now I've got
17:45
the information in the video description
17:47
by the way and you know I've got the
17:49
website I give you guys a call what goes
17:52
through the sales process what can I
17:54
expect and how soon does a freeze dryer
17:57
get built for me so typically what we're
17:58
we're going to do is we're going to talk
18:00
to you about what you're freeze drying
18:02
the volumes that you're freeze drying
18:04
and what your plans are for the future
18:06
and from that we'll be able to identify
18:09
what um machine would be best for you um
18:14
is it best to start with a a big baby or
18:17
a bigger baby and uh then plan on moving
18:20
to a four seven or 10 rack machine or do
18:24
you have a market that is mature enough
18:27
that you can go directly to a 10 rack
18:29
machine uh interesting enough in the
18:32
past what we found is when customers buy
18:34
a a four rack machine they really regret
18:37
not buying a 10 rack machine because
18:39
their uh capacity is sold out
18:42
immediately and they could really use a
18:45
10 rack machine you say a rack though
18:47
you're there's multiple trays on a rack
18:50
correct yeah in yeah in one rack there's
18:52
47 fullsize baking trays so in a 10 rack
18:56
machine there's
18:57
4 70 full sizee baking
19:03
trays and so when you're doing that much
19:06
capacity though what go what do you tell
19:09
people about the uses of a commercial
19:12
freeze dryer like that like it's not
19:13
only just for maybe their own product
19:16
but they can also go and solicit other
19:18
people that want to freeze dry is that
19:20
right yes oh yeah absolutely so there uh
19:22
there's two types of freeze dryers
19:24
freeze dryers that are uh doing the
19:26
process for their own product so they're
19:29
freeze drying their own product and then
19:31
there's also what we call toll
19:33
processors that are freeze drying other
19:35
people's product for them and so um
19:39
typically what we see is the most robust
19:42
are the companies that have their own
19:44
product but then also accept uh
19:47
contracts to freeze dry products for
19:49
other companies this gives them a
19:51
broader base to work with and is
19:54
something that is very very successful
19:57
what would you say the percentage of
19:59
customers that you have today that are
20:01
doing toll and their own product and
20:04
which ones are doing just solely their
20:05
own product I would say that 3/4 of our
20:08
product our our uh customers are doing
20:12
uh both wow and then there's about a
20:14
quarter that do just their own product
20:16
and that's something that typically we
20:19
we have found is that when somebody
20:20
orders a commercial whether it's uh one
20:23
of our small machines or one of our
20:25
bigger machines as soon as they put out
20:27
the word that they're freeze drying
20:29
their capacity is gone you they they
20:32
fill up that capacity
20:36
fast another question that that kind of
20:38
comes to mind is what's the time it
20:40
takes to create a freeze dryer for a
20:43
customer that varies a little bit it
20:46
takes uh probably 4 to 6 months to make
20:50
the chamber uh those are made for us by
20:53
a company in California um takes four to
20:56
6 months to actually make make the
20:57
chamber and then about the same time
20:59
period to make the chiller the chillers
21:01
are massive and um and they take quite a
21:04
bit of time to make it only takes
21:07
us uh anywhere from a week to three
21:10
weeks to assemble the system uh I think
21:13
our um record was four days wow uh for
21:18
assembling a a complete system and so
21:21
once we get all of the component it's
21:22
very very quick uh but uh we have to
21:25
have four to 6 months before you have
21:28
have a a system
21:32
inhouse now Matt are there things that
21:35
are red flags when you get a phone call
21:37
or your team does from a new person
21:39
looking at a commercial freeze dryer
21:41
from you are there things that pop up
21:43
that that you're like you're not quite
21:45
ready there's things that maybe we can
21:47
the audience can kind of understand like
21:50
okay these are the things that I need to
21:51
think about that most people already
21:53
have uh that dialed in yeah and probably
21:56
the two most obvious do they have a
21:58
market and they do do they have a supply
22:01
of raw materials um some people have a
22:04
market but they really don't have a way
22:06
to get the raw product to for the freeze
22:09
drying process so if they have both of
22:11
those things okay well we can we can
22:13
talk and we can go to the next step and
22:16
uh so then we're talking about you know
22:19
how big is the market and what are their
22:21
plans for the future and so red flags
22:24
would be uh somebody that says well it'd
22:26
be nice to be able to do this but you
22:29
know do they have access to the product
22:32
in order to be able to do that do you
22:34
have access to a supplier to get all
22:36
that that freeze-dried or that regular
22:38
candy do you have access to to have all
22:41
that fruit uh do you have a facility
22:43
that's making that that yogurt puree uh
22:47
that you can then manufacture and also
22:49
the customers to buy it yeah and then
22:51
probably the final would be um do they
22:54
have a knowledge of freeze drying you
22:56
know is is it something that they're
22:58
just interested in or is this something
23:00
that they've actually gotten their feet
23:01
wet and they know that this is something
23:03
that they want to pursue well I hope you
23:05
learned a lot about tech sorce systems
23:07
in the commercial freeze drying Market
23:08
one of the things that really stood out
23:10
to me was that a lot of their customers
23:12
are doing toll freeze drying and again
23:14
if you went back and looked at that
23:16
particular section he talked about how
23:18
even with a commercial grade freeze
23:20
dryer there's opportunities for you to
23:22
freeze dry for other people making money
23:24
because if someone else can't fit them
23:27
am of capacity that they have their
23:28
current freeze dryers they're looking at
23:30
someone who has the capacity and can
23:32
freeze dry too so it's another Revenue
23:33
source for you if you're looking at
23:35
starting and expanding your freeze
23:37
drying business you can definitely look
23:38
into commercial grade freeze dryers and
23:41
still make money now if you want to get
23:42
to know Tech Source systems a little bit
23:44
more and contact Troy and Matt at Tech
23:47
Source systems you can go to the video
23:48
description below I've got all their
23:50
information from their website and even
23:52
their email address so you can get
23:53
directly in contact with them and kind
23:55
of get to know more about commercial
23:56
freeze drying now the next part of this
23:59
video is my visit to their facility it's
24:01
right in the back room for where this
24:02
interview took place and this is where
24:04
Matt shows us exactly what his tray
24:06
racks look like for their freeze dryers
24:08
as well as their individual tray
24:10
technology for warming up those trays
24:12
and getting them all freeze dried
24:14
consistently so that video is coming up
24:16
next I'll see you there
24:20
[Music]
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