AMETEK MOCON Continues to Lead the Way With Testing Instruments
At AMETEK MOCON, we pride ourselves on partnering with our customers to create innovative solutions that fit their unique needs. This philosophy has been rooted since our beginning in 1966 when we patented cutting-edge technology that allowed food manufacturers to ensure their products had a shelf life that was safe, known and predictable.
Today, we’re the global leader in packaging testing with 90% of the market share while expanding our expertise into new industries and countries continents each year. We have more than 250 employees across the world and systems installed on six continents that our customers can trust to give them accurate, repeatable results every time.
A Groundbreaking Instrument
H.L. Demorest was a physicist working at General Mills in Minneapolis when he founded a company and created the IRD-2C, the world’s first instrument to dynamically measure water vapor permeation through coated papers in 1964. A couple years later, the company was incorporated as Modern Controls or by the name it quickly became known as, MoCoN.
His new test method was 10 times faster, more accurate and easier to use than previous methods. It was a critical test for food manufacturers and their suppliers, particularly when it came to their dry packaged consumer products like cereal, salty snacks, crackers, baked goods and powders. This new method dramatically improved the standards for measuring the permeation rates of water vapor through barrier packaging materials.
We continued to innovate new ways to measure oxygen permeation by releasing our Ox-Tran 100 in 1971 for packagers of meats, cheeses, condiments, chips and oily snacks. With that additional patent, our products became the international standard for these types of tests in multiple industries that are still used today.
The Right Technology
In 1980, we were positioned in the right place at the right time with the right technology as early polymers like polypropylene and polyethylene were introduced. Food and beverage companies began to replace their packaging materials with these new polymers. We had technology that was widely accepted and accredited to assist our customers with these new materials, which changed the shelf lives of their products.
The new materials had different gains or losses of water vapor, oxygen and carbon dioxide from the long-established packaging customers had previously used. It became necessary to test all package designs and batches of polymer materials for permeation rates of gases.
The replacement of traditional materials such as cellophane, foil, waxed glassine, coated papers, glass and metal continue to be replaced today. There are now 10,000 new packaged products introduced each year, and we continue to be a leader in testing all types of packaging today.
Looking Ahead
At AMETEK MOCON, we continue to expand our capabilities to ensure we remain flexible to meet our customers’ needs. We acquired Baseline Industries in Lyons, Colorado, in 2001 and Dansensor in Ringsted, Denmark, in 2012.
The two acquisitions have added market-leading gas detection and measurement technologies and market segments to our family of products and services. AMETEK acquired MOCON in 2017, which has furthered our ability to innovate solutions for our customers.
Our focus on creating groundbreaking instruments that set the test standards continues unabated. Our customers’ unique needs motivate us to create one-of-a-kind products that give our customers accurate, repeatable results.