Our History

The company’s Tekmar and Dohrmann brands have a rich heritage that dates back over 25 and 40 years, respectively. Since creating the first commercial purge and trap concentrator in 1975, Tekmar has been synonymous with innovative, quality products for Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) analysis that increase the productivity of end user analytical laboratories worldwide. Similarly, Dohrmann has a history of meeting the needs of a diverse group of industries with pioneering technology and products for elemental analysis, principally Total Organic Carbon (TOC) and Nitrogen (TOC/TN). Both Tekmar and Dohrmann started as independent companies.

Dohrmann
Dohrmann was founded by Bruce Dohrmann of San Francisco in 1960. Mr. Dohrmann was a businessman who supported research and development of electrochemical detection devices at the Stanford Research Institute. This technology became the underpinning of a number of early Dohrmann products. Dohrmann was a highly successful and innovative company which grew steadily through the 1970’s and 80’s. Dohrmann introduced many innovative instruments for the analysis of Total Carbon, Nitrogen, Sulfur and Chlorine and was the industry leader in this field. Dohrmann was acquired by Emerson Electric in 1986 and made part of Rosemount Measurements.

The Tekmar Company
The Tekmar Company was founded in 1972 by Mr. Lothar Witt and his partner Mr. Jim Grote as a distributor of scientific apparatus. Over the next several years, the line of products grew rapidly and the Tekmar catalogues become well known in the laboratory community.

In 1974, Tom Bellar, a chemist with the USEPA in Cincinnati invented the “Purge and Trap” technique for analyzing trace levels (parts per billion) of volatile pollutants (such as benzene) in water. Purge and Trap gave a 100-fold improvement in sensitivity from existing laboratory equipment. Tekmar recognized the commercial potential of their invention and introduced the first commercial Purge and Trap device, the LSC-1 in 1976. Tekmar grew rapidly and became known as an innovator in instrumentation for trace analysis of VOC’s in water, air and soil.

In 1990 Emerson Electric acquired the Tekmar Company and made it part of Rosemount.

Tekmar Dohrmann
Tekmar and Dohrmann continued as independent instrument companies under the Rosemount Analytical umbrella until 1996. Tekmar Company and Dohrmann were combined to form a single company, Tekmar-Dohrmann.

Also, in 1996, the Dohrmann facilities in Santa Clara, California were shut down and all assets were physically moved to Cincinnati and consolidated into the Tekmar facility. Since that time Tekmar-Dohrmann has continued to support the Tekmar product line for VOC analysis and the Dohrmann product line for elemental analysis, primarily TOC analysis.

Teledyne Tekmar
On June 26, 2003, Tekmar Dohrmann was acquired from Emerson Electric by Teledyne Technologies Incorporated becoming a business unit of Teledyne Instruments, a group of electronic instrumentation businesses within Teledyne’s Electronic and Communications business segment. Teledyne Technologies is a leading provider of sophisticated electronics components, instruments and communication products, systems engineering solutions and aerospace engines and components with operations in the United States, the United Kingdom and Mexico. 

“Tekmar’s products expand Teledyne’s existing offerings in environmental monitoring and provide entry into the laboratory water quality testing market,” said Robert Mehrabian, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Teledyne Technologies.

Today, Teledyne Tekmar still provides the high-quality TOC and VOC instrumentation that has made us so successful. We look forward to the future as we continue to develop new instruments for you.