Business briefs

10 Aug 2006

Including news from Jenoptik, Ocean Optics, New Wave Research, Aspectrics, and others.

• The Jenoptik Group's new production site for lasers and laser components is now operational in St Petersburg, Russia. Seven employees of the Thuringia-based technology group have been manufacturing laser modules at the facility, which covers an area of around 300 m². Jenoptik chose to invest in Russia to gain access to specialist laser technologies and know-how, while the production site also offers cost advantages. Lasers produced at the plant will be sent to Jena for integration into components and systems for civil and military applications.

• Analytical Spectral Devices (ASD), a supplier of field-portable spectrometers and spectroradiometers, has created a support program for north American researchers in the areas of remote sensing and field spectroscopy. The Alexander Goetz Instrument Support Program offers temporary use of ASD field instruments for graduate-level research, as well as up to $500 towards the publication of any resulting findings. Proposals must be made by the end of September, and the winners will be announced in late October. The support program is co-sponsored by the Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS), a member organization of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE).

• Ionatron, a company developing next-generation weapons based on laser-guided energy, has seen its revenues fall from $4.0 in the first quarter of 2006 to just $2.0  in its second quarter. The net loss for the quarter totaled $5.2 m, compared to $1.7  for the previous quarter. The company attributes the drop in revenues to the completion of certain government contracts, as well as an eight-week interruption in operations while the company relocated from New Mexico to Arizona.

• Incoate , a German manufacturer of X-ray optics, and Bruker AXS, a global provider of X-ray solutions for life and materials sciences, have launched what they claim is the brightest sealed-tube X-ray source. The IuS X-ray microsource is a high-brilliance X-ray generator that incorporates a 30 W micro-focus sealed tube together with high-performance Montel multilayer X-ray optics. The IuS provides a photon intensity up to five times higher than a conventional sealed-tube system, which is equivalent to a rotating anode generator rated at 5.4 kW.

• Janis Research Company has appointed Elliot Scientific to distribute their full range of cryogenic equipment in the UK and Ireland. Janis has supplied cryogenic equipment for research, characterization, and industrial applications since 1961, with products including variable temperature cryostats, research dewars, superconducting magnet systems, ultralow temperature systems, cryogen-free systems and custom-engineered equipment.

• Aspectrics, which develops on-line process monitoring equipment based on its proprietary Encoded Photometric Infrared Spectroscopy (EP-IR) technology, has won an award for its EP-IR MultiComponent Analyzer. The product has been named by R&D Magazine as one of the Top 100 most technologically significant products introduced into the marketplace over the past year. Aspectrics' product was noted at the awards for its impressive spectral range, its 128 photometric channels and its ultrafast scan rate, which allows manufacturers to monitor processes in Real-Time. The company believes that EP-IR technology could replace non-dispersive infrared (NDIR), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and gas chromatographic technologies for process monitoring and environmental applications.

• Ocean Optics, a manufacturer of miniature fiber-optic spectrometers, is to extend its collaboration with New Wave Research, which produces laser-based systems for laser ablation, particle image velocimetry, and semiconductor manufacturing. The two companies have formed a partnership to develop and manufacture a family of advanced laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) products, following a successful collaboration on a high-speed, turnkey LIBS system called LIBS-ELITE. This system incorporates Ocean Optics' high-resolution fiber-optic spectrometers and New Wave Research's Universal Platform laser-ablation product family, and provides real-time, high-resolution spectral analysis of elements in a variety of materials.