The history of Atoma

Atoma was established in 1946 near Munich (D) by Wilhelm Ludwig Krämer who started repairing counter scales which were damaged during the 2nd World War. In 1948 he started the production of sliding weight scales and in 1959 he built the first clock scales.

The production of automatic weighers started in 1962 with the Atoma type 501. Some of these machines are probably still being used today! Atoma’s breakthrough came in 1963 when they attended the Interpack trade show in Düsseldorf for the first time. Atoma was the only European manufacturer/supplier of automatic weighers present and at the time the first Hansella Transwrap machines for automatically shaping and sealing bags were introduced on the European market. The Atoma type 501 and later type 102 was a mechanical automatic weigher with scales with 2 coarse and fine dosing limit points and 4 vibrating feeders controlled by large wirewound potentiometers. In 1968 the first electronic automatic weigher was built, the type 104. This Atoma weigher was very advanced: the strain gauge used in the current load cells, was also used in the type 104 weighing cells!

Even in those days, the developments in electronics occurred in quick succession. In 1972 Atoma had already put type 112 on the market - which also had many mechanical improvements, including closed coils in the vibrating magnets for higher vibrating intensity (travel) and easier adjustment. This type of vibrating magnet is still used nowadays.!

From then on, only few mechanical improvements were made. The type 114 (1974) and 200-series (1977) mainly had electronic improvements. The 200-series with the Atoma 233 as most popular model, was the best that Atoma has ever produced. The advantages of the 200-series are the very stable oil-damped weighing cell, the modular control system (each weighing head has its own control system) en the best electronics ever. In 1992 Atoma stopped the production of the 200-series. Between 1980 en 1986 a few more machines called type 300 and 400 were built. In 1986 the type 500 was introduced with programmable screen controls, but only few machines of this type were manufactured due to the rise of multihead weighers, also for Atoma (Multipond).

In Atoma Benelux B.V. in Best (the Netherlands) was established in 1986, so Atoma could sell and service their own weighers. Until then, Atoma was represented by an agency. Because of the success of the multihead weighers, their sister company Multipond GmbH, where the multihead weighers are manufactured, was established in 1987. Linear weighers were hardly sold anymore by Atoma / Multipond, so a large number of machines in “typical linear applications” were sold and installed in close cooperation with a specialist company LWA – Laurijsen Weegautomaten and these still require maintenance on a daily basis.

Atoma (D) manufactured over 3,000 weighing heads, 700 of which LWA has sold over after a full or partial overhaul, always with warranty! The fact that the Atoma 200/500 linear weighers are still being copied almost unmodified by producers worldwide and our sister company Newweigh shows that these weighers have excellent quality.