ElektroPhysik USA, Arlington Heights IL, USA

ElektroPhysik is one of the leading manufacturers of measuring instruments used for advancing surface technology, research and quality control. Being a pioneer in the field of non-destructive coating thickness measurement, ElektroPhysik, in cooperation with national and international standardizing institutes and universities has successfully advanced new product developments along with international standardization of the coating thickness measurement.
ElektroPhysik privately held company owned and managed by the Steingroever family. It is headquarters are in Köln Germany near the famous Rein River. ElektroPhysik still occupies the original building though it has gone through many expansions over the years to facilitate growth.
ElektroPhysik maintains branch offices including the U.S.A. and is represented by distributors and agents globally in almost every country in the world. It is this network and partnerships that enable ElektroPhysik to service its customers and provide the support required in today's competitive global marketplace.
The first coating thickness testing gauge was developed by Dr. Steingroever. Utilizing the Magnetic Attraction principle, it was called the MikroTest (still manufactured today and even available in digital display format, it probably remains the most utilized coating thickness testing device utilized, even today) . Magnetic Attraction is a very reliable technique for measuring coatings however its only drawback is that it only works with coatings applied over ferrous materials such as steel and iron.
However, the Magnetic Attraction principle paved the way for the development of analog devices. First using Eddy Current and then later Magnetic Induction, these devices expanded coating thickness testing beyond just corrosion control.
Today all three of these principles are used to non-destructively measure a variety of coatings. Magnetic Attraction is the measuring principle used in the MikroTest, PenTest and MiniPen by ElektroPhysik.
Magnetic Induction is the measuring principle of choice for ferrous metal substrate application while the Eddy Current principle is the measuring principle of choice for non-ferrous metal substrate applications.
Both of these measuring principles are found in the MiniTest family of gauges as well as the eXacto by ElektroPhysik.
More recently ElektroPhysik developed yet another measuring principle primarily for non-metal substrate applications such plastic and wood. The QuintSonic utilizes a high level ultrasound approach which has enabled measurements to be conducted on these types of substrates non-destructively.
On April 20, 2007 ElektroPhysik launched a new model, the MiniTest 700 Series with SIDSP® digital sensor technology.
SIDSP® is an ElektroPhysik exclusive which took years of research and development. SIDSP® stands for Sensor Integrated Digital Signal Processing and the way that works is that entire coating thickness measurement is processed in the sensor at the point of measurement. SIDSP® is unlike previous conventional techniques where an analog signal was generated at the sensor and then that signal would be sent to a host gauge to processing. The vulnerability with that technique was that it was susceptible to environmental influences such as strong electro-magnetic fields and other signal disturbances that could affect the analog signal and therefore the reading.