October 20, 1998             Contact:  Michael W. Pope
                                       Dionex Corporation
                                      (408) 481-4107

DIONEX CORPORATION ANNOUNCES ACQUISITION OF SOFTRON GMBH

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Dionex Corporation (NASDAQ: DNEX), the worldwide leader in 
ion chromatography, announced today that it has purchased 
Softron GmbH (Softron).  Softron is a privately held German 
company specializing in high performance liquid chromatogra-
phy (HPLC) systems used by scientific, pharmaceutical, and 
industrial laboratories to analyze the chemical components of 
compounds.  Softron's  products are marketed predominantly in 
Europe and generated annual revenues of approximately $10 
million in the fiscal year ended December 31, 1997.  The 
price and terms of the transactions were not disclosed.  

A. Blaine Bowman, Dionex President and CEO, commenting on the 
transaction, said, "We believe Softron will provide Dionex 
with a world class HPLC system. Now, our customers will be 
able to select from an even broader range of systems, automa-
tion products, columns and consumables to solve both their 
ion chromatography and their HPLC needs.  In particular, Sof-
tron's ChromeleonTM chromatography software package, includ-
ing state-of-the-art client/server architecture, will provide 
analytical chemists with new and extremely powerful capabili-
ties.  We are enthusiastic about the opportunities this 
transaction creates for our stockholders, as well as for our 
customers and employees."

Dr. Peter Jochum, President of Softron, commenting on the 
transaction said, "We are excited about partnering with 
Dionex.  The strength of the Dionex distribution structure, 
as well as Dionex's solid reputation for quality instrumenta-
tion and service around the globe, should allow sales of our 
HPLC system and ChromeleonTM software to grow quite rapidly.  
Additionally, Dionex's expertise in column chemistries and 
applications development will allow Softron to provide its 
expanding customer base with complete solutions."

Dionex expects to record an after-tax charge against earnings 
of between $6.0 and $8.0 million in the second quarter of 
fiscal 1999 in connection with this acquisition.

Dionex Corporation is a leading manufacturer and marketer of 
chromatography systems for chemical analysis.  The Company's 
systems are used in environmental analysis and by the pharma-
ceutical, life sciences, food and beverage, chemicals, petro-
chemicals, power generation and electronics industries in a 
variety of applications.  

Certain statements regarding sales and earnings contained 
herein that are not purely historical are forward looking 
statements.  Factors that may cause actual results to differ 
from these statements are foreign currency fluctuations, com-
petition from other companies and products, economic condi-
tions in the areas in which the company sells its products, 
and existing product obsolescence.  These factors and other 
risks and uncertainties are discussed in greater detail in 
Dionex's most recent Report on Form 10-K filed with the Secu-
rities and Exchange Commission.