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At the end of the 19th century, steam and pressure vessels were a vital part of economic growth. Unfortunately, explosions of poorly maintained pressure vessels led to numerous severe accidents.
 In 1872, Germany's first Pressure Vessel Survey Association (in German: Dampfkessel-Überwachungs-Verein, DÜV) was established to survey steam and pressure vessels regularly. The association's inspectors tested the vessels thoroughly in order to find the smallest damages and irregularities before they could lead to catastrophe. Their work was successful: within the next 20 years the number of steam and pressure vessels in use more than doubled, but the number of explosions went down. The foundation of other DÜVs followed. The DÜVs took their names by area: the association founded in 1872 called itself Rhenish DÜV (Rheinischer DÜV) because it served the companies in the Rhine valley. It became the predecessor of today's TÜV Rheinland.
The associations, though private societies, took over some governmental duties of inspection and approval. Heading into the 20th century, the DÜVs began inspecting elevators and vehicles as well as other technical equipment. In 1936, the company name was changed to TÜV Rheinland (Technical Inspection Association Rhineland).
With the establishment of TÜV Rheinland e.V. in 1962, we became officially accredited as a governmental inspection body. This opened up numerous new business fields, ranging from the inspection and assessment of cranes to entire power plants.
For the private domain, TÜV Rheinland Product Safety (TRPS) is covering the testing and certification of a multitude of electrical and mechanical products in accordance with German and European safety and health regulations. Moreover, private test marks related to different safety aspects (such as the EMC mark) have been introduced to allow companies to show off their products' special features.
Meanwhile TÜV Rheinland can look back on 125 years of experience dealing with safety and health related services for man, environment and machinery.
In 1972 our first international subsidiary was opened in Luxembourg, and six years later- in order to meet the growing demands of the international markets and to be able to offer our testing and certification services to customers locally the establishment of a representative office in Japan marked the beginning of TÜV Rheinland Group Asia.
Due to increasing business, the representative office was converted into the joint stock company TÜV Rheinland Japan Ltd. in 1983. In the mid-eighties, the opening of TÜV Rheinland Taiwan Ltd. followed. Today, a total of 21 branch offices, including test laboratories in 9 Asian countries, belong to TÜV Rheinland Group Asia.
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