Before rubber dams
Dyrhoff’s history goes back to 1947 when Ing. Svein Dyrhoff set up a steel fabrication company in Norway. The company’s primary business was as a supplier of heating and ventilation products, a sector in which our Norwegian company continues to this day, but it also supplied components to other sectors, including the hydro-electric industry.
Sumitomo and Obermeyer agent
In 1989, Dyrhoff became the Scandinavian agent for Sumitomo Electric. Sumitomo was one of the world’s leading suppliers of rubber dams and Dyrhoff identified an opportunity to offer its Sumigate product to the hydroelectric market in the region. Dyrhoff supervised the commissioning of it first Sumitomo rubber dam at the Orevann Hydroelectric Plant in 1992.
At this time, Donald Mason (now Managing Director of Dyrhoff Limited) was working as European product Manager for Sumitomo and also oversaw the supply of Sumitomo dams elsewhere in Europe, including 5 rubber dams on the River Serpis in Spain in 1990.
In 1997, Dyrhoff became the European Agent for Obermeyer Hydro Inc., an American manufacturer of pneumatic spillway gates, supplying the first European Obermeyer spillway gate for the Denkpal Flood Diversion project in Hungary in the same year.
Rubber dam designer and supplier
In the early 2000s, Dyrhoff took over the international Sumigate rubber dam business from Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. Sumitomo wished to focus on its domestic Japanese rubber dam market and offered the international rights to the Sumigate design to Don Mason. Don teamed up with Dyrhoff and set up a new office in Folkestone, UK, now the headquarters of the Dyrhoff rubber dam and spillway gate business. Regional offices have since been opened in the USA and France.
Since 1989, Don Mason and Dyrhoff have been involved in the design, supply and commissioning of over 100 rubber dams and spillway gates across four continents.