Spectro

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SPECTRO Analytical Instruments GmbH
legal form GmbH
founding 1979
Seat Kleve , Germany
management Managing director
Christoph Mätzig
Number of employees 272 (at headquarters)
around 400 (worldwide)
sales 100 million euros
Branch Analysis and measuring equipment
Website www.spectro.de
As of December 31, 2015

Spectro , in its own spelling SPECTRO , with its full company name SPECTRO Analytical Instruments GmbH , is a company of the American Ametek group. The wholly owned subsidiary based in Kleve is a market-leading manufacturer of measuring instruments for elemental analysis.

The company was founded in June 1979 by Paul Friedhoff , who managed it as managing partner until the end of 1997. In 1998 he sold his company to a group of investors led by German Equity Partners , which in June 2005 agreed with Ametek, Inc. to bring Spectro into Ametek's "Electronic Instruments Group" (EIG). Since 2008, Spectro has been part of the “AMETEK Materials Analysis Division”.

history

From foundation to sale (1979–1997)

After completing his studies in "physical engineering" at the state engineering school for mechanical and electrical engineering in Iserlohn , company founder Paul Friedhoff initially worked as an engineer for the steel industry from 1967 onwards. His main focus was on research and the quality department. From 1974 he worked in the measuring instrument industry for another five years until he made the decision to start his own business.

The history of Spectro began in June 1979 in an outbuilding of his house on Herderstrasse in Kleve. He called the young company's first product "SPECTROtest". The basis was a new, simpler procedure to check the chemical-physical composition of materials by means of spectral analysis . Above all, the measurement of alloys to determine whether the respective starting metals were contained in the correct ratio to one another. By the end of 1980, he had installed a total of forty of the devices that were initially built in his private apartment and called "SPECTROmeter" for customers.

Spectro expanded internationally as early as 1981. First with a branch in France and by founding a subsidiary in Fitchburg , Massachusetts in the United States . A year later, Spectro moved into a new building on Boschstrasse in Kleve. In 1983 branches in Italy and the United Kingdom followed . By the time the 1000th spectrometer was completed, the operating area in Boschstrasse was already 3,000 m 2 . In 1987 a branch in Australia was added and a new facility in Kleve in Tichelstrasse started production in 1988. Until the second half of the 1990s, other products were gradually added.

As a member of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) since 1972, Paul Friedhoff was increasingly politically active in addition to managing the company. First as a city councilor, from 1990 as a member of the German Bundestag , where in 1997 he took over the chairmanship of the “Working Group on Economic, Financial and Agricultural Policy” in his parliamentary group. In the same year, the company founder retired as managing director and sold SPECTRO GmbH in 1998 to a group of investors led by the holding company German Equity Partners .

Under German Equity Partners (1998-2005)

The new owners bundled their shares in the holding company SPECTRO Beteiligungs GmbH and changed the corporate form of the manufacturing company to SPECTRO Analytical Instruments GmbH & Co KG . Only a little later, in 1998, Spectro expanded by taking over ASOMA Instruments, Inc. , based in Austin , Texas , and Polycon Analysensysteme GmbH and Polycon Laborautomation GmbH from Kranenburg . In addition, the holding company acquired a majority in Spectruma Analytik GmbH . Further international branches such as "Asia-Pacific" in Hong Kong (1999), but also in China and South Africa (2000) were opened and the range of devices in the field of atomic spectroscopic analysis was expanded. By 2005, the annual turnover increased to around 85 million euros.

Under AMETEK, Inc. (since 2005)

In June 2005 the American Ametek group from Paoli , Pennsylvania announced that it had agreed on a takeover with German Equity Partners BV . In return for a payment of 98 million US dollars (at this point around 80 million euros), the Spectro Group was finally transferred to the Ametek division “Electronic Instruments Group” (EIG). In August 2008, the manufacturer , which has been trading as SPECTRO GmbH since October 2006 , was merged with its holding company and its name was subsequently changed to Spectro Analytical Instruments GmbH . In December 2008, Ametek founded the parent company AMETEK Material Analysis Holdings GmbH to form the “AMETEK Materials Analysis Division”, which to this day essentially consists of the Spectro Group.

Products

The company is the market leader for analysis equipment in the field of optical and X-ray fluorescence spectrometry. About 30,000 devices were manufactured in the first thirty years of operation. According to the company, 40,000 were already delivered worldwide in 2017. At the beginning of 2017, Spectro's product range mainly consisted of:

  • Mobile arc / spark spectrometers (OES, English optical emission spectrometer ) for the identification of materials (PMI, English positive material identification ), for the analysis and sorting of metals
  • Stationary spark spectrometers (OES) for metal analysis, especially in the context of process control
  • ICP-OES spectrometer (ICP-AES, English inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy ) for the analysis of elements in different forms, from aqueous solutions to semiconductors and petrochemical products to soils and sludge
  • ICP-MS spectrometer (ICP-MS, English inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry ) for the fully simultaneous measurement of the entire inorganic mass range
  • X-ray fluorescence spectrometer (XRF spectrometer) for the analysis of solids, liquids and powders
  • XRF handheld spectrometer for metal analysis, especially for environmental measurements and in mining

Awards

  • In 2012 the new ICP-OES was awarded the innovation prize in the laboratory and analysis technology division at Achema .
  • 2010 Silver Pittcon for the world's first simultaneously measuring ICP-MS

Corporate culture

The company attaches particular importance to its own training. Seven trainees are hired every year. With the degrees in 2016, the company presented the best candidates of the year to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in the Duisburg / Wesel / Kleve district for the seventh time in a row .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christoph Mätzig is the new managing director of Spectro . In: RP Online , October 26, 2016, accessed April 13, 2017
  2. ↑ a b Spectro Analytical Instruments GmbH , Annual Report 2015, see Federal Gazette , accessed on April 13, 2017
  3. ↑ About Us , on the company's website, accessed April 13, 2017
  4. ↑ Bergsch is retiring . In: Neue Ruhr Zeitung , May 19, 2016, accessed on April 18, 2017
  5. ↑ Friedhoff, Paul K. in the Google book search: Biographical Handbook of the Members of the German Bundestag 1949-2002 , Rudolf Vierhaus (ed.), Walter de Gruyter 2002, p. 227
  6. ↑ a b c Milestones , on the company's website, accessed April 13, 2017
  7. ^ Paul K. Friedhoff, 1943-2015 , obituary in kleveblog , November 17, 2015, accessed on April 13, 2017
  8. ↑ Analysis area enlarged . In: Quality Engineering of the Konradin Media Group , April 1, 1999, accessed on April 13, 2017
  9. ↑ a b AMETEK takes over SPECTRO Analytical Instruments , AMETEC, Inc. press release on BusinessWire , June 13, 2015, accessed on April 17, 2017
  10. ↑ Wolfgang Remy: 30,000 spectrometers in 30 years. In: Neue Ruhr Zeitung . September 17, 2008, accessed April 13, 2017 .
  11. ↑ Marc Platthaus: Spectro receives Innovation Award for new ICP-OES spectrometer , In: Laborpraxis , July 30, 2012, accessed on April 13, 2017
  12. ↑ SPECTRO MS wins silver Pittcon Editors' Award. In: chemie.de. March 12, 2010, accessed December 30, 2016 .
  13. ↑ Two chamber-top apprentices at SPECTRO , press release on the company's website, November 28, 2016, accessed on April 13, 2017