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Striving for Perfection and Precision

More than 75 years have passed since the founding of HEINE Optotechnik, yet today HEINE remains a family-owned company where the owner still serves as the managing director.

It all began in the post-war year of 1946, when a young and ambitious engineer, Helmut A. Heine, faced a choice on how to apply his knowledge and experience as a qualified physicist.

Helmut A. Heine

Deeply interested in medicine, he decided to dedicate himself to this field. Thus, in the small picturesque town of Herrsching near Munich, he founded the company HEINE Co. Medizinisch-Physikalische Werkstätten GmbH.

From the very beginning, the company’s founder built its philosophy on four main principles that HEINE has strictly followed ever since:

Do something meaningful, strive for it, and thus make a valuable contribution to society.
Give your best, always develop and manufacture only the finest products.
Do everything yourself, produce essential components in-house to ensure innovation and the highest quality.
Remain independent, to always make the right long-term decisions in the interests of patients, users, and employees.

Today, more than 500 people work at the company’s facility producing primary diagnostic instruments. The four principles laid down by Helmut A. Heine in 1946 are still in force today. Moreover, dedication to these values ensured the company’s stable growth even during the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. While many supply chains were disrupted, HEINE maintained consistent production and global deliveries of vital medical instruments. The reliance on in-house manufacturing, including even the smallest components, fully proved its worth.

The Path to Success

Starting a high-tech production in post-war Germany was no easy task. Many materials and resources were scarce. During these difficult times, HEINE repurposed empty cartridge shells to create its first diagnostic instruments.

The young company began producing more and more components in-house and gradually acquired the necessary machinery. In 1954, when it became clear that the market could not provide lenses with the required precision, HEINE established its own optical workshop equipped with machinery for grinding lenses to exacting standards. There, employees began crafting high-quality optical lenses. Today, HEINE lenses are produced with an accuracy of ±0.0001 mm using modern CNC machines - 20 times finer than the diameter of a human hair.

In 1971, HEINE acquired the company Zorn, which already manufactured miniature precision incandescent and LED lamps for diagnostic instruments from HEINE and other manufacturers of medical and technical analytical equipment. To this day, all light sources - both LED and xenon-halogen - are produced at HEINE’s own facility in Germany.

In 1973, recognizing that the available plastic components on the market lacked sufficient precision, HEINE purchased Klatt, a tool and mold manufacturer specializing in injection molding. The integration of this facility significantly expanded HEINE’s expertise in mold production for thermoplastics. Visitors to the plant are always impressed by the company’s in-house injection molding and mold-making capabilities.

In 1983, HEINE developed its first head-worn binocular indirect ophthalmoscope - the Omega 100, weighing only 450 g, making it the lightest instrument of its kind.

In 1989, after a visit to a dermatologist, company founder Helmut A. Heine was dissatisfied with the diagnostic accuracy. In cooperation with the University of Munich, he discovered that much valuable information lies beneath the epidermis. Together with dermatology experts Professor Dr. Otto Braun-Falco and Professor Dr. Wilhelm Stolz, he developed the first dermatoscope—the Delta 10 - which increased diagnostic accuracy from about 55% to 90%.

In November 1982, the company expanded by founding HEINE Canada in Kitchener, Canada. Three years later, in 1985, it extended operations to Australia. After acquiring Caminer Brothers, which had been importing HEINE instruments for several years, HEINE established its own sales office - later renamed HEINE Australia PTY Ltd in 1991.

In 1986, a new family member joined the management team in Germany. Helmut M. Heine, son of the founder, took over leadership of HEINE Optotechnik.

Helmut M. Heine

He continued to expand the company’s global leadership and international sales. In 1987, a new branch opened in Neuhausen am Rheinfall, Switzerland, followed by another in the USA in 1990. The family also became active in the American market: Oliver Heine, grandson of founder Helmut A. Heine, became regional sales manager and a founding member of HEINE USA Ltd.

Oliver Heine

In 2003, Oliver Heine joined the management of HEINE Optotechnik, initially overseeing sales, marketing, and subsidiaries such as HEINE (Schweiz) AG, HEINE USA Ltd, HEINE Instruments Canada Limited, HEINE Australia PTY Limited, HEINE Scandinavia, Cornelius Glas GmbH, and Zorn GmbH Co. KG. In 2006, he became head of operations for the entire group, and since 2015, Oliver Heine has been the sole managing director and owner - now representing the third generation of the family.

In 2020, the company moved from its long-standing headquarters in Herrsching to a newly built head office in Gilching, near Munich. All departments - R&D, tooling, optics, electroplating, manufacturing, and administration - are now located under one roof, bringing numerous advantages.

“This year, we launched our new binocular indirect ophthalmoscope. We could not have achieved this in record time without the close internal integration of all departments - from design and tooling to production, product management, and marketing.”
– explains Oliver Heine.

He is referring to the Omega 600, the latest indirect ophthalmoscope, which makes a striking impression even on seasoned ophthalmologists: from the very first trial, their eyes light up like those of children receiving something they have long dreamed of!

Also in 2020, the product range was expanded with two new handheld dermatoscopes - Delta 30 and Delta one.

Delta 30

Delta one

Over the years, the company has remained faithful to its principle of producing as many components as possible in-house. Oliver Heine proudly notes that more than 80% of the parts for HEINE instruments are still manufactured directly at the company’s facilities. The remaining components are supplied by partner companies, most of which are located nearby in Bavaria.

“Our relative independence from suppliers allows us to flexibly and quickly expand our component production capabilities as needed, even in the current pandemic situation.”
– Oliver Heine

This approach enables HEINE to maintain extremely high quality standards and bring new products to market quickly. The company intends to continue developing and manufacturing its instruments at its facilities in Germany, where decades of experience and craftsmanship are combined with modern production technologies. HEINE is represented in more than 120 countries worldwide, with subsidiaries in Australia, the USA, and Switzerland, and a network of about 3,000 representatives, importers, and specialized dealers.