Rotronic’s world famous ‘red electronics’ celebrates golden anniversary

Bassersdorf, Switzerland: – Renowned Swiss-based manufacturer and supplier of specialist measuring solutions, Rotronic AG, has been celebrating its first half century in business with a range of golden anniversary offers across its many product lines.

It was in the summer of 1965 that graduate engineer Hans Speglitz established Rotronic AG in Zurich as the first foreign distributor of the 19” rack systems made by German company Schroff.

When Vice President Susanne Schroff asked Speglitz to explain his chosen company name, he explained:
“It’s a combination of the word ‘electronic’ and ‘rot’, which is German for red and is also the color of our logo – catchy and easy to remember.”

Precision measurement

Rotronic’s expansion into the precision industrial measurement field that was to make its name all over the world came about almost by accident.

In 1967 a chemist working for a famous Swiss paper manufacturer became terminally frustrated by the absence of any precision instrument to measure relative humidity and decided to design his own capacitive humidity sensor. He then contacted Hans Speglitz to develop the electronics to evaluate its data for him. This resulted in Rotronic‘s first humidity meter, the handheld GTS ‘sword’ hygrometer.

During the 1990s and 2000s, the rapid expansion of Rotronic‘s trading activities into IT accessories meant that its instrumentation activities took a temporary backseat. Nevertheless the high accuracy and long-term stability of Rotronic’s instruments ensured loyal markets worldwide.

Into the future

In recent years, Rotronic has resumed development of its industrial measurement range, with the focus on humidity and temperature measurement. With its portfolio ranging from hand-held meters and measurement transmitters to laboratory solutions and data loggers, Rotronic has become a leading player worldwide.
Whenever reliable and repeatable humidity measurement is critical Rotronic’s humidity sensors are the clear choice.

Rotronic continuously enhances its products and parameter portfolio to offer customers the best measurement solutions. Over the past few years, Rotronic has taken on various other measurement parameters such as CO2, differential pressure and low dew point and is developing products to measure pressure, airflow and more.

International player

Rotronic sells its measurement solutions in over 60 countries around the globe and is becoming a true international company. The establishment of Rotronic Canada in 2015 brought the total number of international subsidiaries into double figures.

“Over the next 50 years, too, we will continue to work every day to convince customers about our high-quality products and services,” pledged Managing Director Michael Taraba.

“We look forward to further new products that we will develop, produce or evaluate with passion and spirit of innovation. As an engineering partner, we work untiringly on deepening our know-how and keep a finger on the pulse of our industry with customer-oriented solutions that allow our clients to focus completely on their core businesses,” said Mr. Taraba.

About Rotronic

Celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2015, Rotronic AG is a Swiss-based manufacturer and international supplier of specialist measuring solutions used by pharmaceutical and other industries. Rotronic has become one of the world’s leading names in humidity and temperature measurement and is renowned for the high quality of its Swiss-made meters, instrumentation, sensors, data loggers and other measuring equipment.

Rotronic’s lines of business include products for measuring humidity, temperature, CO2 and differential pressure, solutions in the areas of 19″ equipment and uninterrupted power supply for safety systems, and all types of measuring devices. Rotronic measurement solutions are in daily use in pharmaceutical, chemical, foodstuffs and many other industrial sectors.

With more than 200 employees, 42 sales outlets and eight subsidiaries worldwide, Rotronic Group is becoming an increasingly international company, realizing some 60 per cent of its turnover in export sales. The company’s eight subsidiaries are located in main global markets, such as the USA, China, the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Singapore, and, most recently, Canada, where a subsidiary opened in 2015.