Company History & Overview
Foundation & Ownership
Master Instruments Pty Ltd was founded in 1942 by Mr Joseph Dunn & has always been 100% Australian owned & operated privately-held company by the Dunn family.
Company History
Below is the timeline of the company history and developments.
1942:
» Master Instruments Pty Ltd was founded by Mr Joseph Dunn, his brother Jack and Mr George Woodhead primarily to manufacture electrical type panel measuring instruments for the three Australian Defence Forces.
» Established its first meter assembly line on the 3rd floor of 13 Blackfriars Street, Chippendale and produced 40,000 meters in record timeframes for the Defence radar apparatus needs.
1946:
» Master Instruments became an incorporated entity and legally registered in NSW as a Proprietary Limited company with registration number 176063.
1949:
» Now employing 60 master technicians, the company began manufacturing the Master Auto-fan which was an iconic site on dashboards of taxi cabs pre air conditioning era. The patent, manufacturing rights and tools were subsequently sold to Westinghouse Electric. Mr Ron Hicks joins the company’s board of directors.
1959:
» Moved to Sloane Street Marrickville in new purpose built 12,000 square feet premises with state of the art tool rooms, machine shop, drawing rooms and test laboratories.
» Completed the design and subsequent mass production of the Australian Army Multimeter No.2 contracted under the PERT program.
1968:
» Large export business helped to double the size of the Marrickville factory and expand its range of products to include moving coil, taut band & moving iron panel meters, switchboard instruments, Decade Resistance Boxes, Decibel & V.U meters, galvanometers, cable fault location equipment, relays, pyrometers, frequency & expanded scale meters plus current transformers.
1970:
» Opens Melbourne branch in St Kilda and establishes representation in other states of Australia and New Zealand. Representation in Oceania region also developed for Camille Bauer Switzerland, Hartmann & Braun Elima Germany, Crompton/Comex/CUI Japan and Lutron ElectronicTaiwan.
1975:
» Contracted supply to many tier one technology & industrial companies such as Telecom Australia (ATC), Alcoa, ABC, L.M Ericsson, GE, Leeds & Northrup, Philips TMC, Plessey, STC & Utilux.
1983:
» Founder Joseph Dunn & his sons continue to run the core business with the third son John Dunn being recruited from BHP to become Managing Director who employed Varta Batteries ex product manager Geoff Schaper to grow the battery business.
» Company diversifies due to adverse Government policies & the digital revolution and begins importing, assembling and distributing batteries, battery packs and portable power solutions. Initial relationships are built with Tadiran, Gould, Varta and Sanyo Electric for Carbon, Alkaline, NiCd, NiMH & Lithium products.
1987:
» Major investment occurs into battery pack assembly lines and technical laboratory & R&D equipment.
» Company has large contracts with Telecom Australia, Gas & Energy Utilities and Government bodies for test, measuring & control equipment.
» Extends distribution agreements with Sanyo, Varta, and Gould on the growing mobile energy side of the business.
1992:
» Milestone reached of 50th anniversary year with Telstra Lines Test Set, GP Set & Test Lamp Tester series still being expertly manufactured locally.
» The company extends the DC power product ranges to include distribution agreements with Panasonic, Ultralife, Renata and Duracell.
» Covers all battery chemistry solution provision including NiCd, NiMH, Lithium, SLA, LiIon, LiIon Polymer and LiFePO4.
2000:
» The company wins important tenders for the Olympic games, Australian Hearing Services and Battery Maintenance & Analysis equipment rollouts through its partnerships with Varta and Cadex.
» The company launches its first website www.master-instruments.com.au and then www.batteryexperts.com.au.
» Retail support business continues to develop with Intertan (Tandy), Dick Smith Electronics, Leading Edge Group & Battery World.
» Large ERP/CMS software system upgrade post GST.
2003:
» Launches private label and new branding of application specific batteries under the MI The Master Series and then MI Battery Experts label.
» Stocks & distributes the widest range of portable & micro batteries and related equipment in the Oceania Region.
» Directors John and his two sons Rodney & Philip Dunn finalise buy out arrangements of John’s brothers Richard & Ronald who have worked in the business for over 30 years.
» Start to specialise in LiIon battery solutions and is accredited assembly partner for Sanyo Mobile Energy company (now Panasonic).
2006:
» Sydney facilities are expanded with bulk warehouse & engineering section relocation, and offices modernised and refurbished with new production & assembly lines for batteries and power systems.
» Designs the LiIon polymer portable power solution for the Commonwealth Games baton.
» Recognised by being awarded the NSW/VIC CRS Employer of the Year and also nominated in the Prime Ministers Employer of the year awards.
» Awarded the SME Diversity @ Work employer of the year at the 2008 award national ceremony at Crown Casino Palladium where the company was commended by Sir Bob Geldof.
2007:
» Gains ISO 9001 certification from SAI Global covering the Quality Management Systems under certificate QEC24093.
» Opens up Queensland sales office on the Gold Coast and develops key partnerships in the Oceania region for DC power products distribution.
» Live stock levels and pricing through account login access for account holders.
2010:
» Signs Oceania Distributor agreement with FDK/Fujitsu after Sanyo divests NiMH & Lithium plants due to Panasonic take over of Sanyo.
» Stocks over 8,000 lines of portable & micro power products from the world’s leading makers developing an enviable line card of distribution brands.
» Mass production partnerships agreed to with Taiwanese power solution assemblers (Japanese cell manufacturer audited Quality).
2012:
» Celebrates 70th year anniversary.
» Brings into the business Steve Lipari (ex Battery Packs Plus Australia) and also buys the assets and stock of BPPA & Octon Electronics from the retiring industry veteran John Schneider.
» Acquires Siomar Battery Engineering/Industries from the Beamish family. Mark Beamish heads up the company's WA facility & the company's OEM/ODM business expansion in the recent purpose built battery engineering facilities in Wangara Perth.
» Distribution agreements extended to include Electrochem, Saft, Renata, Enersys, K2 Energy, Kung Long, Intec, RouteJade, West Mountain Radio & Xtar.
» Trademarks owned expanded to MI, The Master Series, Battery Experts, Battery Fighter, The Battery Book, Drypower, enecharger, enepower, Ionix & Motormate (agent).
2014:
» John Dunn becomes Group Chairman and Philip Dunn becomes the company's third only Managing Director with brother Rodney Dunn as General Manager.
» Moves Queensland office to Springwood in Brisbane with locations now in four states of Australia.
» Over 100 highly skilled staff helping the company to a threefold growth footprint during the previous decade.
» The company extends its activities in the solar, energy and power systems fields and develops a complete product line of DC power products.
2016:
» Offers a standard UN38.3 tested "Design-In" Lithium battery line up.
» Extends the Drypower Brand from original AGM VRLA into Hybrid GEL series including Dedicated Solar Deep Cycle and Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) series.
» Upgrades ERP software platform and launches 24Hr transactional B2B clever commerce called "MI Link".
2017:
» Celebrates 75th year anniversary.
» Moves Sydney Headquarters after 58 years in Marrickville to modern larger 5,500m² facility with complete fit-out at new Milperra location (18 Kms South West of Sydney's Kingsford Smith Airport).
» Initiates new Oceania Distribution agreement with FANSO for Primary Lithium (LiSOCl2 and LiMnO2) Products. FANSO is owned by the Large EVE Group.
» MI becomes a Master Distributor for the Globally Innovative Victron Energy B.V.
» Transitions the company to ISO9001:2015 standard.
» Conducts corporate branding renewal with the Battery Engineering logo emphasising the core competence of the company from it's original instrumentation & metering heritage.
» Broadens the Mass Production capabilities to include major offshore partnerships in China, Singapore & Taiwan.
2019:
» Companies QLD Sales Office moves into Brisbane Technology Park Eight Mile Plains.
» Joins the Smart Energy Council and extends partnership with Recycling company Envirostream.
» Strategic alliance built with Lithium Iron Phosphate Manufacturer Power Long Battery (PLB).
» Completes a brand renewal of the growing Bespoke or Custom Manufacturing & Assembly range under the ENEPOWER branding.
2020:
» Drypower range of Sealed Lead products extended to include Standby Long-Life, Pure Gel, 2V Stationary & Telecom Front Terminal batteries.
» Strengthens it's market share in Large Rechargeable Lithium kWh Energy Storage, Motive Power & Propulsion Solutions in becoming Oceania Distributor for MG Energy Systems.
» Signs Distributions Agreement with Pylon Technologies Co., Ltd for Rack & Wall Mounted LiFePO4 Energy Storage Solutions for Industrial Markets.
2022:
» Company celebrates it's 80th year anniversary.
» Melbourne Victoria branch re-locates after 20 years at Ringwood to larger facilities in Croydon South to cater for the companies growing inventory requirements.
2023:
» Appointed Australian Wholesale Distributor for the Sunman range of eARC mobile off-grid solar products (vehicle/vessel & integrated PV range).
» Approved as an Australian Wholesale Distributor for the Wakespeed range of smart DC charging systems. Wakespeed's advanced alternator regulator, the WS500, is the first of its kind delivering unsurpassed quality and performance.
» Master Instruments releases its new look website with improved usability, mobile-optimisation, and improved SEO. The MI website now hosts over 11,000 products.
» Purchase & installation of Arbin Instruments battery test equipment for NSW & WA Branches. Master Instruments demonstrates their support of the Australian battery engineering R&D industry with Arbin's state of the art testing equipment. The new Arbin Instruments equipment provides Laboratory Battering Testing (LBT) series hardware, which provides industry-leading, high-precision measurements and high-frequency data sampling. Paired with Arbin's software flexibility, this battery test equipment now provides the control that is needed for the real-world tests.
» Appointed Australian Wholesale Distributor for the Delta-Q Technologies industrial Lead Acid and Lithium Ion battery chargers.
2024:
» Expands its relationship with French battery powerhouse SAFT, being the ONLY Authorised Australian Distributor for the Connected Smart Energy (CSE) products which include the 3V and 3.6V Lithium Primary cells and rechargeable Lithium Ion product ranges.
» Signs distribution agreements with NOARK (Subsidiary of Chint Global) for the Sion single-phase and Trinix three-phase hybrid inverter ranges. Also extends offering of the NOARK Miniature Circuit Breakers and Moulded Case Circuit Breaker ranges.
» Releases the low voltage Pylontech Deep Cycle LiFePO4 range in 12.8V (12V) and 25.6V (24V) with smart distributed BMS intelligence (allowing for the parent and child scenario where each battery has the ability to recognise the other in series, parallel and series/parallel combined configurations).
» Designs & creates its own specialised ENEPOWER range of battery management system (BMS) fully featured smart protection circuits in 1S to 4S up to 20A and 3S to 16S up to 30A.
» Extends the bespoke programmable “ALL” chemistry TURTLE digital universal range of chargers to include the 200W version TSB004 (allowing for parallel usage).
» Master Instruments invests in state of the art machinery including Automatic Battery Welding Stations, 3D printers, Fibre Laser Cutters, and CNC routers to maintain its edge as Australia's premier Battery Engineering and assembly facility.
» Master Instruments appointed as Australian Distributor for the Voltgo range of LiFePO4 RV and Marine batteries. Voltgo were the first batteries of this type in Australia to incorporate fire suppression inside the battery case.