80 years ago ODU founder Otto Dunkel revolutionized the contact technology with the springwire contact. Countless electrical contacts are still based on this very idea today. The drive to achieve this is what continuously pushes ODU to develop new and innovative connector solutions.
2018 a new production site is being built on 48,000 m² of the company’s new industrial estate. The site meets the latest ODU standards. Some 500 people are currently employed at ODU in Sibiu.
After 75 years, the ODU corporate brand can look back on a successful history that all began with an ingenious idea of Otto Dunkel. The inventive spirit of the founder is the nucleus from which the success of the company grew.
Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow.
ODU opens a new production facility near Tijuana, Mexico. The reason for this is the successful American project business with application- and customer-specific products. As in Europe, completly assembled connectors are increasingly being offered in North America.
After 30 years of proven ODU-MAC technology, ODU now markets the new ODU-MAC Blue-Line, which is a whole new power class of the modular rectangular connectors.
Foundation of the ODU Japan subsidiary
Foundation of the ODU Denmark and ODU Italia subsidiaries
The ODU AMC High-Density is one of the most compact and lightest connectors series brought to market. This innovation sets new standards in the miniaturization of connectors. catapults the connector into a whole new dimension of miniaturization.
Founding of the Product Development Center (PDC) in Shanghai, China
ODU generates sales of over 100 million euros
Development of high current connectors for electromobility
Founding of the ODU Romania subsidiary.
Founding of the ODU Automotive, Inc.
Founding of the ODU Automotive GmbH subsidiary
Founding of the ODU Shanghai Trading.
The ODU MINI-SNAP series is extended into the medical application area with the ODU MEDI-SNAP.
Founding of the ODU France subsidiary
Start of the ODU MINI-SNAP circular connector series
Founding of the ODU UK subsidiary
Founding of the ODU USA subsidiary
Founding of the ODU Steckverbindungssysteme GmbH & Co. KG as a marketing and sales company
The first circuit board connectors are produced.
ODU begins developing electronic connectors. The ODU CARD series is added to the portfolio. The “card-in-card connectors” enable stack construction even in small devices and are used particularly in control systems where space is limited.
The workforce expands to 140 members; turnover crosses the one million D-Mark threshold.
Otto Dunkel GmbH receives the patent for the production of "Federnde Steckerstifts“ – today known as the "ODU SPRINGTAC® contact with springwire technology".
Otto Dunkel has one of his best flashes of genius while observing a man sweeping away leaves with a twig broom. That very moment is nothing less than the springwire contact’s hour of birth. Inspired by the individual twigs of the broom, Dunkel turns the contact into lines, in other words into individual springs.
The result: constant contact resistance and steady application pressure contact. This enables a weak point in communication systems – the unreliable connector – to be overcome.
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