IEMI

IEMI (Întreprinderea de Aparate Electronice de Măsură și Industriale, the Enterprise for Electronic Measuring and Industrial Apparatus) was one of the main Romanian manufacturers of electronic test and measurement equipment. It was based on the Pipera industrial platform in the north of Bucharest.

From FEMI to IEMI

The company was founded in 1968, by a decision of the Council of Ministers, under the name FEMI (Fabrica de Aparate Electronice de Măsură și Industriale) [1][2]. Its first activity took place within the Electronica works, on Venerei Street in Bucharest. The first production capacities on the Pipera platform went into operation in the third quarter of 1970 [1].

In 1973 the “factory” became an “enterprise”, and the name changed from FEMI to IEMI [1][2]. The emblem shown above, a circle crossed by waveforms, dates from the FEMI years and remained the most widely used logo of the company.

The plant occupied a large area between Dimitrie Pompei Boulevard and Fabrica de Glucoză Street, where its five-storey administrative building stood [4].

Products

IEMI was set up to manufacture measuring and industrial equipment, largely based on designs developed through research contracts with ICE, the Romanian institute for electronics research [2]. Its range included oscilloscopes, digital multimeters, counters and frequency meters, signal generators, instruments for electrical and non-electrical quantities, and power supplies [2]. Well-known examples are the E0302 multimeter, the E0102 oscilloscope and the E0502 Versatester.

The enterprise also produced medical and industrial electronics, as well as portable, mobile and fixed radiotelephones built under licence from the Swedish company SRA (Svenska Radio Aktiebolaget) [1]. Measuring instruments were in fact the smaller part of the output: over 70% of the activity consisted of professional radio communications equipment for the Ministry of National Defence and the Ministry of the Interior [2], alongside a wide range of military products [1].

After 1989

In 1991 IEMI was privatised, keeping its name and field of activity [1]; the “IEMI SA” logo in the gallery below belongs to this period. The liquidation process began in 2006 and bankruptcy was declared in 2008 [1] (another source dates the start of the bankruptcy procedure to 2009 [2]). Around 2010 the buildings were demolished entirely, some of them by implosion [2]. The site is now occupied by a complex of residential tower blocks [4].

With the disappearance of IEMI, Romanian state production of professional and industrial electronic equipment practically came to an end [1][2].