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KROHNE Celebrating 100 Years of “The Spirit of Creativity BY COURTNEY KLESS
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ROHNE is marking 100 years in 2021. The theme for this year’s celebration is “The Spirit of Creativity,” a spirit that has been a key part of the company’s success for the past century. “Not too many companies in our business have lasted 100 years as a privately-owned company, so it’s exciting,” said Joe Incontri, director of marketing for North America. “One of the things (our second-generation leader) concluded early on is if you want to have a successful company, you have to be creative, and you have to hunt for unusual solutions to problems. That still goes on right now. Innovation is very important to KROHNE.” Since its early days, the company’s core philosophy has remained the same — to provide the best possible measuring device for its customers. KROHNE was founded in Duisburg, Germany, by Ludwig KROHNE. He wanted to create a device that measured flow for fire engines. Twenty-eight years later, 58 • Northeast Dairy Foods Association, Inc.
following losses during World War II, Kristian Rademacher-Dubbic, the founder’s grandson and an artist, restarted the company. KROHNE’s first success came in 1952 when it introduced the electromagnetic flowmeter. At the time, all flow measurement devices were mechanically based, and KROHNE’s device was the first to measure flow without any moving parts. Instead, it used a magnet that detected a change in voltage. “That was really a hallmark for KROHNE,” said Incontri. “Since then, the innovations kept coming fairly rapidly, like ultrasonic flowmeters. That was something that had been done, but not very well. KROHNE took that and ruggedized it for use in industrial applications for liquids and then, ultimately, for gas. One of the more recent major innovations was the development of a Coriolis mass flowmeter that, at the time, was unlike anything on the market. It was a straight-tube Coriolis meter that was not affected by things that effected every other mass flowmeter on the market, mainly vibration in pipes. That
made it more accessible to a lot more applications. There is an emphasis on being different and applying new twists on available technology and principles.” Innovation and creativity are still important to the company today. Now home to more than 4,000 employees and with production facilities in 11 different countries (including the United States, China, and France), KROHNE has become a world leader in filling machine applications, providing a variety of flowmeters, analysis products and devices that measure level, pressure and temperature. It also offers entrained gas management, a “unique solution” for food and beverage customers that are loading and unloading milk using KROHNE’s Coriolis mass flowmeter. “That feature is very attractive because it gives you an accurate measurement, even with the presence of air in the lines,” said Incontri. “When you’re unloading or loading a truck, the hoses are basically empty. When you start flowing, there is a whole bunch of air that goes through the meter, and some
