A famous DYNAsty

Our experience and expertise are second to none. Maybe it's got something to do with our founder, Alfred Nobel. He invented dynamite in 1867. Two years before, he had set up a company in Hamburg, Germany. Nobel's genius laid the foundations for a successful business that has not only survived for nearly 150 turbulent years but also prospered in specialist explosive applications.

How it all began

The history of modern-day explosives began in a small town near Hamburg in North Germany. A company Alfred Nobel (1833-1896) set up in 1865 was registered in Hamburg as Alfred Nobel & Co. Though posthumously honoured for the Nobel Prizes he so generously funded, Alfred Nobel's claim to fame in his own lifetime was the invention of dynamite in 1867. Back in 1862 Alfred Nobel had recorded the world's first successful explosion of nitro-glycerine - in the River Nevka in St. Petersburg. Two years later, Nobel patented a fuse to explode pure nitro-glycerine and in 1867 came his groundbreaking invention - the safe explosive he called dynamite. Production began the same year at the factory near Hamburg.

Strong roots

The roots of DYNAenergetics' present-day operations lie not only in the pioneering work of Alfred Nobel but also in two German explosives companies. In 1886 the Rheinisch-Westfälische Sprengstoff-Actiengesellschaft (RWS) was set up in Cologne to manufacture detonators. Shortly afterwards, production began at a factory in Troisdorf. In 1903 two German businessmen established a factory in Würgendorf to manufacture explosives for the iron-ore mines and slate and basalt quarries of Germany's Sauerland and Siegerland. In 1928 the factory was taken over by Dynamit AG, as Alfred Nobel & Co. was then known. In 1930 RWS also became part of Dynamit AG, which subsequently moved its head office to Troisdorf later in the 1930s. In 1959 Dynamit AG was renamed Dynamit Nobel AG in recognition of its famous founder. Nearly a century of pioneering patents prove that RWE and Dynamit Nobel had stayed true to the innovative tradition of Alfred Nobel.

Market upheavals

RWS and Dynamit AG/Dynamit Nobel survived the upheavals of World War I and II to come back even stronger in the post-war years. In 1961, for example, Dynamit Nobel developed the pressure- and temperature-resistant detonator Z-480 and in 1990 the pressure- and temperature-resistant detonating cord Octocord PT 165. The Würgendorf factory had to adapt its product portfolio to survive the demise of iron-ore mining in Sauerland and Siegerland. The Troisdorf factory began manufacturing shaped charges in 1991 and the world's first RF-safe electronic detonator, the 0015FDE, was developed in 1997. Throughout the 20th century, the sites in Troisdorf and Würgendorf repeatedly demonstrated their ability to adapt to changing markets - through innovative skills and business acumen.

The cutting edge

In 2001 Dynamit Nobel sold its oilfield-related division, DYNAWELL (Troisdorf), and its explosion-cladding division, DYNAPLAT (Würgendorf), to a newly formed company known as DYNAenergetics. Since then, DYNAenergetics has carried on where Dynamit Nobel left off in special-purpose explosives. In 2003 DYNAenergetics opened a gun manufacturing plant in Troisdorf and since then has recorded several firsts. In 2004, for example, DYNAenergetics became the world's first manufacturer of all the components required for perforating gun systems. In 2005, the company became the world market leader in the HNS API 19B Standard. And in 2006 DYNAenergetics developed the first-ever No Debris Gun System (NDG) that leaves no debris in a well after perforating operations. In line with this tradition, DYNAenergetics is totally committed to staying at the cutting edge of explosives technology. Alfred Nobel would have expected no less.

Ahead in quality and service

Besides such innovations in explosives technology, DYNAenergetics has also been improving the quality of its services with the aim of reducing the expense and effort its customers have in conducting drilling operations and seismic campaigns. To this end, DYNAenergetics RUS was set up in Moscow and kazDYNA in Atyrau, Kazakhstan. Since these trading companies have import licences for explosive products and local warehousing facilities, they can solve a customer's transport problems. Since the two companies also sell entire perforating systems consisting of hardware and explosives, they can save customers all the hassle of customs formalities and permit procedures. Another joint venture, Perfoline, was set up to manufacture perforating hardware in Tyumen, Siberia.

Since November 2007, DYNAenergetics has been part of DMC (Dynamic Material Corporation), the global market leader in explosive cladding. The merger of the two companies will exploit synergy effects in research and development as well as networking worldwide services - to the benefit of all our customers.