Hoffman Engineering was founded in 1955 by J. Gordon Hoffman. The initial charter of the company called for it to support the photometric needs of the aircraft panel and instrument manufacturers. Many of these small manufacturers were located in the Northeastern United States. At that time color and luminance requirements were becoming more strict and these companies did not have the equipment necessary to measure their performance. Mr. Hoffman recognized that need and sought to fill it by performing photometric tests in his NBS traceable laboratory. In addition, he designed test equipment for sale to larger aerospace companies.

The Hoffman Engineering laboratory business grew with the aerospace industry in the United States. The scope of the business grew to include spectral testing, calibration of lamps and standards, and repair and calibration of photometric equipment. Hoffman Engineering became the recognized leader in the testing of aerospace-related lighting equipment. Tests were performed on aerospace, ground support, shipboard, space-related and other higher technology lighted devices.

In addition to the work performed in its own laboratories, Hoffman began to develop its own line of photometric test equipment for sale to industry. Among the many products designed and manufactured by Hoffman engineering are contact photometers, luminance targets, integrating spheres, laboratory power supplies and luminance standards. The Hoffman luminance source has become the industry standard for the calibration of photometric equipment in lighting laboratories all over the world. Our knowledge of integrating spheres has placed this equipment in lighting laboratories in many industries.

Today Hoffman Engineering continues to be a National Institute of Standards (NIST) traceable laboratory. Hoffman has been designated by many defense companies as its source for MIL-STD-45662 photometric and radiometric calibrations. Hoffman is fully qualified to perform tests to MIL-L-85762.

It was perhaps inevitable that Hoffman Engineering would become involved in both the testing of and evaluation of night vision equipment. From the time night vision equipment was introduced into aerospace cockpits, Hoffman was asked to perform tests on panels, indicators and aircraft instruments. It was also inevitable that our knowledge of accurate light sources would move the image tube manufactures to ask us to design image tube test equipment. Many image tube tests, such as gain, resolution and EBI, are performed using a light source as a basis for the test. Once again, Hoffman's knowledge of integrating spheres and techniques for holding light sources at constant lamp color temperatures became the basis for much of this test equipment design.

Last modified: June 08, 2002
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