JEOL

JEOL, Ltd. (日本電子, Nihon Denshi, Nihon meaning Japan and Denshi meaning electron) is a manufacturer of electron microscopes and other scientific instruments. Its headquarters are in Tokyo, Japan, with 25 subsidiaries (as of March 2007) and two associated companies.

For the year 2006, JEOL reported net sales of 93,291 million Japanese yen.

History

The company was founded in 1949 as the Japan Electron Optics Laboratory Company, Limited in Mitaka, Tokyo, in 1949, and produced its first commercial model transmission electron microscope the year later, although a prototype microscope had been sold to Mitsubishi prior to the founding of the company. Overseas sales began in 1956 with the sale of a system to France. In 1961, the company was renamed JEOL, Limited, with the first overseas subsidiary JEOL Company (USA) Inc., established in 1962 and headquartered in Peabody, MA.

In 1963, JEOL produced their first mass spectrometer, followed by the company's first scanning electron microscope in 1966.