I.O.R.
| Societate pe Acțiuni | |
| Traded as | BVB: IORB |
| Industry | Imaging |
| Founded | Bucharest, Romania, 1936 |
| Founder | Nicolae Malaxa and Petre Carp |
| Headquarters | Bucharest, Romania |
Key people | Eugen Nicolescu, CEO |
| Products | Precision binoculars, spotting scopes, telescopes, night vision equipment, rangefinders, riflescopes, projectors and other optical equipment. |
| Revenue | 5.3 million EUR (2007) |
| 1 million EUR (2007) | |
| Website | www.ior.ro |
Întreprinderea Optică Română ("Romanian Optical Enterprise"), often abbreviated by the acronym IOR, is a major optics company established in 1936 in Bucharest, Romania. IOR produces military and civilian grade optics and associated equipment for export and domestic production. The company is known in North America particularly for its rifle scopes (the LPS 4x6° TIP2), binoculars and other optics, which often accompany Romanian military equipment sold on the North-American market, such as the PSD rifle.
Presentation
The company was established in 1936 as a joint-venture between the Romanian industrialists Nicolae Malaxa and Max Auschnitt, engineer Petre Carp (Romania), with participation from the French companies Optique & Précision de Levallois and Bernard-Turnne.
In 1941, when Romania entered the war alongside Germany, IOR was militarised and was tasked to produce mainly for the Romanian army. The first military scopes were produced at this moment for what was then the standard Romanian sniper rifle, the Vz. 24. After the war, though the production continued under Soviet domination, the company maintained links to famous Western European firms such as Carl Zeiss AG, Leica, Pentacon and Schneider Kreuznach, which assisted IOR in its modernization and expansion in the 1970s. As a consequence of Romania's refusal to join the Invasion of Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union ceased sharing technical information and exporting military equipment (including the newly designed SVD Dragunov). Accordingly, Romania designed the PSL rifle as a substitute for the SDV Dragunov, and IOR was tasked with developing a scope for the rifle as a replacement for the Russian PSO-1. The result was the LPS 4x6° TIP2 telescopic sight, which became the standard Romanian sniper rifle scope.
The company is traded on the Bucharest Stock Exchange.
Products
Since its founding, IOR has produced military (including scopes, binoculars, range finders) and civilian grade optics (microscopes, medical lenses, glass lenses) and associated equipment (still cameras and camera lenses, cinema projectors, dental units). Since the 1980s, the company engaged in optical electronics, lasers, metrology, and thermal vision. The company is SR EN ISO 9001 certified.
IOR optics are currently imported into the US by Valdada Optics and are marketed as "IOR Valdada".
IOR's LPS 4x6° TIP2 scopes are commonly found on Eastern Bloc sniper rifles such as the Puşca Semiautomată cu Lunetă, and SVD Dragunov. It is also a very common optic on the US commercial market on rifles that feature a compatible side rail mount. IOR was one of the Cold War era manufacturers that survived the transition to a non communist era rather well. This was due in no small part to their close associations with Western European manufacturers and their 1970s modernization. Other manufacturers like the Russian Novosibirsk Instrument Making Plant and Belorussian Zenit company have not been as successful in entering the Western market.
References
Guns Magazine, Sept, 2003 by David M. Fortier; "SOF Field Tests Tactical Optics From Romania" By David M. Fortier January and February Soldier of Fortune 2003.