Before the tiger got its stripes
You know Kromek wasn’t always known as Kromek; we weren’t always this abstract and ‘post-modern’ in our naming.
Arising as a spin out of Durham University, the three-man operation of ‘Durham Scientific Crystals’ began in 2003. The initial objective was to commercialise the production of the semiconductor Cadmium Zinc Telluride, which still lies at the very core of everything we do.
Reaching for the stars, and higher
Soon after the spin out took place, large customers began reaping the significant rewards of our CZT crystals, and continue to today.
Only a year after the spin out did Kromek secure its first order from the European Space Agency. Then, only one more year after that, Durham Scientific Crystals achieved its first contract with the UK Home Office.
Now renamed as Kromek, our services also branched out to the US when we began to work with the United States Department of Defense in 2008, and the Department of Homeland Security in 2009; the beginnings of two long-lasting relationships.
Planting our roots firmly in the US
Kromek’s substantial growth necessitated an expansion to keep up with demands of global customers. As a result, in 2010, the Kromek family got a bit bigger, acquiring the specialist electronics and ASIC manufacturing company ‘NOVA Research and Development’ in sunny California.
And the growth didn’t stop there. Our US family got even bigger; acquiring the CZT production experts and medical imaging product manufacturers, ‘EV Products’ in Pennsylvania 2013. This facility has continued to flourish over the years, officially becoming Kromek US in 2018 and moving to their very own custom production facility in Zelienople, Pennsylvania.
Say hello to Civil Nuc!
Even before Kromek’s expansion ‘over the pond’, we rapidly hit even more milestones, nurturing and developing our potential in a broader pool of industry.
Rewinding back to 2011, Kromek launched full force into the Civil Nuclear world. We introduced the benefits of CZT and other top-quality scintillation detector components to a variety of new applications, such as health physics, education, research, waste management, power plants and many more. CZT opens doors to using detectors in new ways in Civil Nuclear industries with its small form factor, high resolution and highly accurate spectral results.
Why else would NASA have sent our products to Mars?
Stocks on stocks on stocks
Now we couldn’t just let all our employees have the fun, could we?
As a result, Kromek was launched onto the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) on the London Stock Exchange in 2013.
Get ready world of Biological Detection, Kromek have arrived
We’d taken over Security & Defence, Civil Nuclear and Advanced Imaging. We were ready to take on Biological Detection.
Having worked with DARPA previously on the SIGMA Network, we were surrounded by familiar faces. DARPA awarded us our first contract for biological threat detection in 2021, and from then on it’s been full steam ahead in our Biology Department. Autonomous biological threat detection utilising long-read gene sequencing is the way forward.
The greatest honour
In 2020, Kromek was lucky enough to be awarded the Queen’s Award for International Trade, recognising our significant achievements in the fields of Innovation, International Trade, Sustainable Development and Promoting Opportunity. It was a great honour for the team to receive this award; a mark of the strength of our relationships, the growing potential of our marketing-leading products and the hard work, knowledge and dedication of the entire team.
Where to next?
This year so far, we’ve been awarded £2.5m for Breast cancer screening solution developments, entered a seven-year agreement with a Tier 1 OEM customer, secured orders totalling over $1 million in medical imaging, and are primed to achieve so much more.
Our hunger for more is insatiable.
In 2023, Kromek is celebrating its 20th birthday, and we’re so proud of how far we’ve come, and excited to see where we go next.
