Dr. Bruno Lange GmbH
| Hach Lange GmbH | |
|---|---|
| legal form | GmbH |
| founding | 1933 |
| Seat | Berlin |
| management | Bruno Lange, Reinhard Lange |
| Branch | Water analysis |
| Website | https://de.hach.com/ |
The Dr. Bruno Lange GmbH was founded in 1933 by the physicist Bruno Lange in Berlin-Dahlem established and focused its activities on the economic use of selenium - photocell . In the following years the company rose to become one of the leading manufacturers of measuring instruments and reagents in Europe and was sold to the US American Danaher Corporation in 1998 . It was there in 2004 in the Hach Lange GmbH, which is still active today .
In the course of the company's history, the company's products covered a broad spectrum of industrial and medical analysis and were used in various scientific areas. The company's devices were used nationwide in the medical segment. Especially in the field of wastewater analysis, the products of Dr. Bruno Lange GmbH has played a decisive role in the development of sewage treatment plants throughout Europe since the 1970s.
history
Golden years: the founding phase
In 1931 the physicist Dr. Bruno Lange used the selenium photocell while working at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Silicate Research in Berlin. This transformed light radiation into sufficient electrical energy to drive a motor, which was an academic sensation. For while the principle of the photocell had been known to research since 1888, the previous photocells did not perform well enough to be of practical use. Bruno Lange's construction owes the more than 50-fold increase in performance to a semiconductor that connected the translucent front electrode and the metallic base plate. As a result, the photoelectrons flowed directly into the metal and an electric current was generated.
In order to be able to further advance the work in this area, Bruno Lange founded his own research laboratory in Berlin-Dahlem in 1933, which was shortly thereafter registered as a “special factory for photoelectric cells and devices”. In this laboratory , the young physicist devoted himself to the practical use of the cell he had constructed. Their use should not be limited to the academic field, but should provide valuable services in people's everyday lives.
The first measuring device manufactured in this laboratory, the "Dr. Lange Universal Colorimeter", implemented the premise of its designer in a new way. With the aid of the relatively easy-to-use device, the concentration of the ingredients could be determined based on the color of a liquid . These properties made the instrument an integral part of the establishment of chemical laboratories.
The resulting economic success of the company increased the number of employees from six to 50. This in turn made the move to a new building complex necessary. For this purpose, Bruno Lange acquired two villas designed by Mies van der Rohe in Berlin-Zehlendorf in 1939 after their owners, the engineer Ernst Werner and his wife as well as the historian, Marxist cultural scientist and art collector Eduard Fuchs , had to flee from the National Socialists and confiscated their property has been. The new premises gave the company the opportunity to expand further.
At the end of the Second World War in 1945, the premises and equipment of the Dr. Bruno Lange GmbH completely dismantled. However, the company recovered relatively quickly from this setback and Bruno Lange was soon able to gather a skilled workforce around him.
As early as the early 1950s, the company's catalog showed a large number of other products in addition to the colorimeter . The wide range of spectral, flame and flow photometers , smoke detectors and lighting, color and gloss measuring devices made the head of the company and thus also his company into institutions of scientific research. Not least because of this, Bruno Lange received the DECHEMA gold medal in 1951 for “outstanding achievements in the field of chemical apparatus”.
Another focus: medical analysis
When trying to open up new markets in the economically difficult post-war years, Dr. Bruno Lange GmbH in medicine in the following years. As a result of these efforts, the "Medico-Colorimeter" was developed in 1954, a particularly easy-to-use analysis device for medical practices.
The son of the company founder, Reinhard Lange , who had worked in his father's company since 1957, drove this development forward. Accordingly, a new division of the company was founded under his leadership in 1958, which dealt with the development of ready-to-use packs of reagents for simple photometric analyzes.
With the death of Bruno Lange on March 6, 1969, Reinhard Lange took over the management of the company. Under his leadership, the Dr. Bruno Lange GmbH especially around the assembly earned by measuring solutions. While extensive laboratories were previously necessary for these tests, the new devices from Dr. Bruno Lange GmbH significantly simpler work processes for medical analysis . The reagents put together in a measuring cuvette reacted with the ingredients in a sample, and the on-site photometer automatically evaluated the analysis. These developments also enabled doctors in smaller branches, for example, to carry out extensive tests in the blood and urine of their patients at short notice. The Dr. Devices developed by Bruno Lange GmbH sold well and were soon represented in a large number of German practices.
Under Reinhard Lange, the company's tasks were not limited to the sale and development of instruments. Rather, the simplest possible use of the devices and the appropriate training of practice staff nationwide came to the fore. The further refinement of the cuvette test was of particular importance for this endeavor to make operation as uncomplicated as possible.
In 1971 the first subsidiary was founded in Switzerland. The profits made it possible for Reinhard Lange to give up the old company headquarters in Berlin-Dahlem and led to the construction of his own building complex in the neighboring district of Zehlendorf. The headquarters of Hach Lange GmbH are now located here .
In the 1980s, new developments and structures in health policy introduced a change in the market situation, which drove Dr. Bruno Lange GmbH had medical equipment broken into. The emergence of large, centralized laboratories in medicine undermined the company's core competence of building easy-to-use, handy devices and forced a rethink. Although the company tried to contribute to the development of large, automated instruments by means of complex projects, this plan failed.
A new pillar: industrial analytics
Simultaneously with the decreasing importance of medical analysis in the company profile, another branch of Dr. Bruno Lange GmbH achieved great success. 1966 was led by Herbert Sudars in Dusseldorf a new division of the Dr. Bruno Lange GmbH came into being, the department “Environmental Analysis and Industrial Metrology”. Herbert Sudars was entrusted with the development of special devices in Berlin from 1963 to 1966 and during this activity he recognized the great growth potential of industrial measurement technology. Since Reinhard Lange also supported these considerations, corresponding research was initiated with the help of federal funds and was organizationally separated from the medical sector.
In particular, the increasing importance of wastewater in the 1970s gave rise to a large market in all its problems, the dimensions of which were determined by Dr. Bruno Lange GmbH was recognized early on. The industrial boom in the post-war years had led to a rapidly increasing environmental pollution, which now also became a dominant topic in public. The public response to ecological disasters such as B. the seal death in 1988 in the North Sea , forced new measures to reduce pollution. Based on contemporary investigations and supported by current research, a need arose for biological sewage treatment plants that were clearly superior to their predecessors, which were only mechanically clarifying. This process created new sales opportunities for analytical measuring systems that could accurately and empirically represent the composition of liquids. It is precisely this requirement profile that the Düsseldorf department of Dr. Bruno Lange GmbH and made big profits within a very short time.
The fact that the company's Berlin headquarters was struggling with the above-mentioned problems during the boom of its Düsseldorf branch led to an increasing focus on environmental technology for the company as a whole in the 1990s. In this way, the declining income in the medical sector could be offset by the income from the West German division. The capacities of the plant in Berlin freed up by the declining market for smaller medical analysis devices were therefore soon used for the manufacture of other products developed for industrial work. The new developments benefited from the company's extensive experience, even if their area of application was originally different.
From 1995 the market for medical analytics had declined to such an extent that the company still supported the corresponding product lines, but did not seek any new developments. The focus of Dr. Bruno Lange GmbH as a whole now formed the market for industrial analytics, the growth opportunities of which were still not exhausted. Due to European-wide legal requirements, the need for efficient and easy-to-use environmental analysis increased steadily. Accordingly, numerous subsidiaries were founded there in the 1990s. The USA also offered itself as a future market.
In 2009 the company received the German Sustainability Award in the category “Germany's Most Sustainable Products and Services 2009” in recognition of the sustainability of the cuvette tests for water analysis over their life cycle.
The takeover by Danaher
However, there was no expansion in this direction, since the managing partner Reinhard Lange sold the company to the internationally active Danaher Corporation in 1998. The company continued to exist within this company until it was merged in 2004 with the former competitor Hach Inc., which is now also part of Danaher. Until 2015, the company operated under the name "Hach Lange GmbH" with a focus on water analysis. In 2015, Hach Inc. and Hach Lange GmbH merged their brands and appear internationally as the "Hach" brand.
- ↑ HACH LANGE GmbH. Retrieved June 6, 2019 .
- ↑ About us | Huh. Retrieved June 6, 2019 .
Products
1933 to approx. 1965
With the development of new photo elements and sensitive measuring systems, a wide range of diverse photometric measuring devices for laboratory analysis was created. Working with and on these colorimeters shaped the founding and post-war years of the company.
1960 to 1995
The company turns to the medical sector. Accordingly, research and sales largely relate to photometers and reagents for blood analyzes in doctor's offices and hospitals.
Since 1973
Starting from the Düsseldorf branch, Dr. Bruno Lange GmbH increasingly in the field of industrial and municipal water and wastewater measurement. Photometers and reagents for the laboratory and process control become central business content. Since the company was taken over by the Danaher Corporation, the product range has been expanded significantly as company takeovers and mergers in the water monitoring sector have enabled new developments.
literature
- Dr. Bruno Lange GmbH: Manual for the Medico-Photometer, Lange Druck Berlin GA. 46/68
- Dr. Bruno Lange GmbH: Manual for the Lange Photometer LP2, Lange Druck Berlin GA. 78000
Web links
- Homepage of the Hach Lange GmbH