The history of IMKO
In the last 3 decades IMKO established as leading manufacturer for TDR moisture measurement instruments.
1984
Kurt Köhler founds IMKO Micromodultechnik GmbH in Ettlingen, Germany. Starting point for the company foundation is the patented IMKO ring bus. This enables the development and manufacturing of industrial analog as well as digital micromodules, which are connected to at that time first computers via a serial interface. The first customers are companies like Dow-Chemical, Pirelli, Michelin and Opel.
1986
Start of the several years lasting cooperation with the University of Göttingen. The direction of IMKO technology focuses on environmental sensors and environmental monitoring systems.
1987
According to specifications of Dornier Medical Technology in Munich IMKO develops an intelligent detector for peak values to automatically adjust and control a lithotripter. The detector afterwards is used in hospitals all over the world.
1988
The company in Ettlingen introduces the ENVIS® monitoring system with the INMEWA® capturing software. Its first application ENVIS experiences in the environmental registration plane of the Fraunhofer Institute for Atmospheric Environmental Research in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany. Nowadays the plane is used for ozone researches.
1989/90
IMKO tackles the TDR technology based on radar and develops the patented TRIME® TDR (Time-Domain-Reflectometry) technology.
1992
The cooperation with Prof. Dr. Czurda from the Institute for Applied Geology at the University of Karlsruhe begins. Together they start researching with TDR high frequency technology for the usage in soils and minerals.
1993
Expansion of the TRIME® product family, which enables customers to economically run new applications. The new TRIME-T3 profiled barrel probe is introduced to flexibly measure soil moistures with up to 3m installation depth.
IMKO receives the Dr. Rudolf Eberle innovation prize of Baden-Württemberg for its new TRIME® TDR technology to identify the water content exactly.
1996
IMKO develops the TRIME®-GW INLINE measuring system. It measures product moisture continuously direct in the drying chamber of grain dryers with up to 130°C. The system avoids over- and underdrying and guarantees high product quality and efficient handling.
1998
The TRIME®-S3F surface probe for non-destructive moisture measurement on concrete, screed and masonry supplements the existing portfolio.
1999
The German Agricultural Society, DLG, awards TRIME®-GW INLINE with a silver medal as „pioneering and innovative product”.
2001
Market launch of TRIME®-GW INLINE surface probe for moisture measurement of hard to measure bulk solids like woodchips, coffee, animal feed and similar material.
2003
From 2003 on IMKO combines TRIME®-GW with measurements of the product temperature and introduces compensation. Now everything is measured directly in the probe and the technology captures the product moisture of special materials exactly. Now measurement happens directly within the process – even with challenging applications like malting barley. Anheuser-Busch in USA is one of the first customers.
2006
Market presentation of the new soil moisture probe Generation TRIME®-PICO.
2010
“Top 100“ honors the most innovative companies of the country. Among them is also IMKO Micromodultechnik GmbH: Lothar Späth hands over the seal of approval “Top 100” 2010 in Rostock-Warnemünde.
2016
IMKO wins the bauma innovation prize 2016. The award rewards IMKO’s water-cement analyzer SONO-WZ, a mobile measuring device to measure fastly and safely the water content of fresh concrete. Customers just have to set parameters of the concrete and immerse the probe fixed at a rod several times into a bucket filled with concrete. The display then shows the respective water content. There are no more long waiting times as in the common Darr procedure. It avoids too early setting of the concrete and increases with this the quality and life time of concrete buildings.
The Bavarian minister for economic affairs Ilse Aigner hands over the prize in a glamorous event in Munich’s church of All Saints.
2017
IMKO becomes part of Endress+Hauser: On 01 of October 2017 Endress+Hauser SE+Co. KG takes over the business of IMKO, continues the existing operation with the employees working in Ettlingen and expands the market with their technologies.