Back to the Roots
In the last nine years, diondo GmbH has become the leading manufacturer and service provider in industrial computed tomography. Looking back at its beginnings, the company is on a steep trajectory.
Today, computed tomography presents itself worldwide as an quality control method that is as versatile as it is reliable for the non-destructive testing and measurement of components made of a wide spectrum of materials. The use of this technology is increasingly becoming a requirement for establishing new manufacturing processes and products in a wide range of industries. The growing success of e-mobility and progress in the use of renewable energies would also be almost unimaginable without the use of CT technology. In addition, the inspection technology is constantly being developed further and opens up new possibilities.
The history of computed tomography as an imaging method is marked by its use in medicine. There, the development of modern methods goes back to its beginnings in the 1970s. A little later the technology was transferred for use in industrial applications. Once the technology’s economic potential became apparent, the technology was increasingly pushed forward. Major progress in the high-energy sector has been achieved in the last 25 years, including the first milestone of diondo GmbH:
As part of the EU lead project „Entwicklung und Bau einer Hochenergie-CT-Anlage“ (engl. "Development and construction of a high-energy CT facility"), Hattinger Prüf- und Entwicklungs-GmbH (HAPEG) was founded in May 1993. An existing radiation protection bunker on the site of the Henrichshütte blast furnace was converted, extended and used as the location for the development of the new high-energy 3D CT facility. With a total of 10.7 million Deutsch Marks in funding, this was one of the outstanding projects in the state’s funding landscape.
In 1991, Martin Münker - today's managing director of diondo GmbH - laid the foundation stones of the project and in the following years developed HAPEG from a service provider to a globally operating system manufacturer.
After 20 years of internationalization, structural development and change, Martin Münker left the company and founded diondo GmbH in 2013, which he has since managed at the site in Ruhrallee in Hattingen. From here, diondo moved up into the league of the world's leading manufacturers and service providers of industrial CT with the development of innovative system solutions for a wide variety of applications. Today, the product portfolio ranges from high-resolution sub-micro-CT systems for the analysis of three-dimensional structures in materials research to high-performance linear accelerator CT systems for the analysis of high-density, large-volume components. Especially in the field of customized systems in the high-performance range, diondo has been able to make a name for itself worldwide.
After the company occupying the former site of HAPEG announced its decision to leave at the end of 2021, diondo decided to return to its own roots by renting the facilities. In the process, the high-energy CT system developed under the former management of Martin Münker will also be taken over and will be further used in a modified form.
"The history of diondo, and therefore more broadly of high-energy computed tomography in Europe, is inseparable from the Linac bunker in Hattingen," Münker remembers. "We at diondo are all the more pleased, and of course me personally, to now return to the starting point of our work."
Since January 2022, in addition to the production of standard cabins in the main factory, additional capacities will be used at the new "old" location in order to further expand the competitive advantage of diondo GmbH in the area of customizing and to hold its ground in the increasingly concentrated market in the long term.
"By taking a small step back, we are taking a big step into the future," Münker emphasizes. "The additional site at “Am Walzwerk” offers optimum conditions for us to continue offering our customers customized systems, especially large-scale systems, and to grow with them.
