Consistently making full use of physical possibilities Consistently making full use of physical possibilities | HBM

Consistently making full use of physical possibilities

Globally HBM is today the embodiment of high-precision measurement technology and is represented in all important markets. And for good reason: for more than 60 years, innovative products have been shaping the world of measurement technology. Metrological institutes around the world trust precision amplifiers from HBM.

Since its founding over 60 years ago, HBM has worked in close cooperation with the German National Metrology Institute (PTB) in Braunschweig and with other institutes, scientists and engineers, always making new tools available which have contributed substantially to perfecting worldwide metrology for measuring force, mass, torque and pressure.

But HBM's success story began very modestly at first in 1950. That was when engineer Karl Hottinger founded the company Hottinger Messtechnik in Vogtareuth, Bavaria. With ten employees at that time he produced inductive force, displacement and vibration transducers. No wonder then that now legendary KWS amplifiers support this very technology for measuring force, displacement and acceleration.

From strain gauges to measuring amplifier

Just five years after its founding, the company had gone through such rapid  growth that a move to Darmstadt became necessary. In 1962 the company changed its name to Hottinger Baldwin Messtechnik GmbH. HBM was the first company in Europe to recognize the potential of strain gauges (SG) and began to manufacture them. With the triumph of the new technology, the need for accurate SG amplifier technology grew. In 1970 HBM presented the trailblazing KWS/6E-5 amplifier, a powerful multi-channel system.

Reliable accuracy: the first DKD calibration laboratory

The type DK 37 digital compensator from HBM has marked another milestone in terms of accuracy. The precision of this measuring instrument made it possible in 1977 to open the first calibration laboratory within the German Calibration Service (DKD, now DAkkS), which was accredited at HBM. Types DK 38 and DK 38S6 followed. Even today there are still many DK devices in use around the globe in institutes that pioneered the system for calibration and traceability.

DMP: fully exhausting physical possibilities

HBM introduced the DMP series in late 1980. The DMP39, which was developed in close collaboration with the German National Metrology Institute (PTB) in Braunschweig, was just beginning to fully exhaust the physical possibilities of that strain gauge measurement technology. The device class was subsequently fine tuned continuously in terms of operation and interaction. And finally the successor device, the DMP40, set a standard around the world in primary and secondary laboratories.

HBM is marking another milestone with DMP41, the youngest member of the DMP family. The precision amplifier supports simultaneous measurement with multiple channels. It is even more insensitive to interference and can be integrated in various ways into modern laboratory network environments. Metrological institutes will continue to be able to rely on maximum precision in the future.