A re-print of the Letter from the President in the Winter 2025-26 edition of the Thermetrics quarterly newsletter…
There’s something about the calendar rolling over to a new year that motivates us to reflect on the past and pontificate on the future. Cliché? Yes, but I can’t resist the urge myself.
2025 goes into my history books as a year to remember but not repeat. Tensions and human suffering are on the rise around the world and the rapid growth in technology and wealth are showing little promise for reversing that trend, instead benefiting only a small number of people. In the Themetrics ecosystem, many of our clients experienced funding challenges in 2025 and had to make do with less to deliver on their goals.
Thermetrics also did a lot of stretching last year. Our commitment to helping clients succeed is unwavering, and 2025 really put us to the test. I’m insanely proud of our team for their work last year, building around 40 precision instruments in 2025. Hotplates and ANDI manikins were the most popular, but Newton, head, foot, and STAN manikins were also on the menu—and even a Burnie flame manikin and NEMO immersion manikin. Our Service and Support team completed dozens of calibration and service trips and resolved hundreds of technical support and training inquiries. We consider ourselves extremely fortunate to be able to serve our clients across their entire range of technical needs—from consulting services to rental or purchase of equipment, through long-term product service and calibration.
Last year also marked the formation of Thermetrics Europe, our EU subsidiary in Porvoo, Finland. With this new office in full operation, Thermetrics is able to offer more timezone-friendly sales and service interaction for local clients. We can also offer a limited number of Thermetrics products with EU origin, and plan to expand the number of models which can be manufactured in the Finland facility.
One last exciting souvenir from 2025 was our ACE manikin—built and developed only last year and already a frequent flyer. He has been shown at commercial exhibits in Detroit and Stuttgart, travelled to the UK for some vehicle testing, and shared with clients in USA, Japan, and China. Feedback from our automotive community is that this manikin product really hits a home run with the ability to separately measure convective and radiant boundary conditions, plus conductive heat transfer at the seat and steering wheel interfaces. ACE’s lightweight, no need for heatup time or stabilization, real-time integration of human comfort model, and digital twin capability for virtual design processes makes him ideal for all stages of vehicle development.
Looking forward to 2026, Thermetrics is taking the opportunity to pause, tidy, renew, and better-align ourselves to support our valued client-partners. We have launched a business infrastructure project to replace and consolidate multiple outdated software tools into a central company-wide system. This project won’t be as fun as designing a new manikin, but is needed to maintain product and service quality for our clients in the long term.
We have identified a few key 2026 events that Thermetrics plans to attend and hope to meet up with more folks in person. We also expect ACE to earn more stamps in his passport, based on the high interest level he’s getting. Our wishlist of Thermetrics product ideas and improvements is loaded with innovative things that I have to keep under wraps for now, but will be sharing more about if they reach daylight in 2026. And most importantly, we look forward to more interesting projects, challenging applications, and good laughs with our customers and partners. That’s what really fuels the Thermetrics team.
Wishing you all a year filled with bold innovation and progress in your testing and research endeavors! I look forward to collaborating to help make it so.
Warm regards,
Rick Burke,
Thermetrics President
Rick and ACE taking a break in Manikin Land, Thermetrics’ hub for manikin final assembly.