Products for End Consumers
Although traditionally a classic provider in the capital goods sector, we are now keying some of our products and services more closely to private end consumers. We are pursuing further developments in this segment in tandem with our customers by implementing tools such as regular customer surveys. Two examples – one from our Healthcare division – illustrate our goal of capturing key markets by providing innovative, sustainable products.
Respiratory Homecare
Respiratory Homecare is the business unit with the highest growth rates. It offers care at home for patients with respiratory diseases. For the most part, Linde delivers directly to the patients. The demand for medical oxygen and other respiratory homecare therapies is currently rising at an annual rate of some eight percent in the United States and by more than ten percent in Western Europe and Latin America. Our care focuses primarily on the elderly, with therapies designed to help improve the patients’ quality of life. Here we simultaneously maintain close contacts with our customers through our support staff.
Environmentally safe dry cleaning
The basic technology for CO2 dry cleaning was developed in the 1990s as an environmentally compatible alternative to PERC; it was first commercially exploited in the United States. Here the use of pressurized, liquefied carbon dioxide with the addition of special detergents produces results comparable to those achieved using PERC – without its hazardous side effects for humans and the environment. Linde holds the license for the detergents which form part of this new process. In 2002, the Swedish Center for Preventing Environmental Pollution recognized the CO2 cleaning process as the year’s “most valuable contribution” toward combating environmental pollution.