Julabo, a specialist in temperature control systems with U.S. headquarters in Allentown, Pa., is celebrating the 75th birthday of company founder Gerhard Juchheim.

He founded Juchheim Labortechnik KG in 1967 in Seelbach, Germany. With the support of the municipality, he acquired a property and built a house for his young family that included industrial and office space, and the double garage of the house was used for the mechanical production of the company’s first laboratory units. Juchheim built the first production hall for the company three years later and continued to grow to meet demand.

Today, more than 300 people are employed at the Seelbach site. Additionally, the company has 10 foreign Julabo subsidiaries, with Ralph Juchheim managing the company’s most important foreign subsidiary, Julabo USA.

Trained as an industrial manager, Juchheim worked for his father’s company from 1958 to 1966. The company produced high-precision glass contact thermometers and contact protection relays for temperature-control applications in laboratories and industry. These contact thermometers were the basis for the first laboratory circulators developed and produced in Seelbach.

 In 1972, the company introduced units with fully electronic temperature control on an analog basis. Thus the units were equipped with almost wear-free parts, improving the application possibilities in science and research. In 1990, Juchheim opted for microprocessor technology, enlarging the range of products. With the advancement of digital control in the computer age, digital interfaces were integrated into Julabo units for direct connection to PCs.