Our History
From chemicals to coating inspection - a seventh-generation, family-owned business with global recognition and representation
Starting out in 1818, the original family business was in chemicals. It wasn’t until just after the end of WWII, in 1946, when the first-ever Elcometer gauge was developed, the Elco Meter – measuring plastic and paint on steel and sold at just £10.50 each!
The same year, our first export sale took place. This first export was to BAMR, a family-owned business in South Africa – the third generation of which, are still our distributors to this day. Export has grown since then to now account for 90% of all our sales, through over 170 distributors and 10 offices around the world.
Ever since the first Elco Meter was launched, Elcometer has been a company of product innovation with a series of industry firsts:
1946/7: World’s ‘first’ coating thickness gauge.
1959: World’s first transistor dry film thickness gauge – ElcoTector.
1970: World’s first pocket-sized dry film thickness gauge with single tipped probe.
1973: World’s first single probed, dual FNF gauge – the Elcometer 150.
1978: World’s first digital dry film thickness gauge - Elcometer 250 Minitector.
1981: World’s first microprocessor dry film thickness gauge – the Elcometer 255.
1986: World’s first dry film thickness gauge with alphanumerics.
2000: Elcometer 456 – World’s first menu-driven, graphics display, DFT gauge.
2007: Elcometer 456 Mk 3 – World’s first DFT gauge with Bluetooth®.
2011: Elcometer 465 Mk 4 – World’s first DFT gauge with user-upgradeable firmware.
2012: World’s first surface profile gauge for convex substrates – Elcometer 224.
2015: World’s first NDT gauges with Bluetooth®.
2015: Elcometer 130 – World’s first field-based, soluble salt profiler.
Over the last decade, the business has witnessed incredible growth, expanding our product range to include NDT, abrasive blasting and spray equipment. We have also invested in our manufacturing facilities and opened offices in a further three more countries.
January 2011: Acquired Dakota Ultrasonics.
March 2011: Launched the new Elcometer 456 Mk IV.
October 2011: Opened Elcometer in Tokyo, Japan.
April 2014: Built a modern Machine Shop.
May 2014: Opened Elcometer Houston.
2016: Acquired Crabtree Lane building, 75,000sq ft.
2017: Opened Elcometer in Dubai, UAE.
2018: Launched a range of Abrasive Blast Equipment.
2020: Acquired Sagola, spray equipment.
But our development does not stop there - we have continually upgraded our data management software app - ElcoMaster® for PC and mobile devices which has now been downloaded over 40,000 times by users across the globe.
Our YouTube channel now features almost 100 videos that have been viewed over half a million times and we have an ever-growing social media following on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.
This has been made possible through innovation in research and development, investing in our people and concentrating on maintaining our existing product ranges whilst improving their quality and productivity.
However, the real key to our success is working in partnership with you, our customers and distributors. By working together and listening to each other we have built relationships that have spanned decades, together - we have all grown stronger.
