Company Announcements

MKS Instruments Analytical Solutions Group sales declined 10.3% in 2013 to $56.3 million, or 8% of revenues.

In March, MKS Instruments agreed to purchase the assets of Granville-Phillips from Brooks Automation for $87 million in cash. Granville-Phillips provides vacuum measurement and control instruments and had 2013 sales of $28 million.

In February, Hobré Instruments acquired Hobré Laser Technology from Hilase. The companies have worked together since 2009.

In March, Finesse Solutions partnered with Spectra Automation, a control-system integrator, to combine their products to provide a centralized data-mining solution.

Applikon Biotechnology opened a production facility in Guangzhou, China, in March.

Product Introductions

Thermo Fisher Scientific introduced in February the Thermo Scientific Model 84i Mercury Permeation Source, an enhancement to the Thermo Scientific Mercury Freedom system, which features a NIST-traceable QC method.

Thermo Fisher Scientific launched the Thermo Scientific Orion Chlorine XP analyzer, which utilizes colorimetric DPD chemistry to provide measurements of free, total-residual and combined chlorine in water.

Yokogawa Electric released a multiprotocol wireless adaptor that enables wired field instruments or analytical sensors to be used as ISA100 Wireless devices. Future models will support HART and RS485 Modbus.

Servomex launched the plasma emission detector–based SERVOPRO Nanochrome ultra-trace gas analyzer for the measurement of contaminant gases and hydrocarbons in semiconductor manufacturing.

IONICON Analytik introduced the compact, affordable PTR-TOF 1000 trace-gas analyzer.

Symbion Systems released Symbion QT 2.0 chemometrics software, featuring an expanded user interface and automatic pre-filtering of spectral regions.

Libelium launched the Waspmote Smart Water platform, a wireless sensor platform for remote water-quality monitoring. It features autonomous nodes that connect to the cloud for real-time water control. It can measure more than 12 chemical and physical water-quality parameters.

Tiger Optics introduced the Prismatic 2 multispecies analyzer, which packages the sensor and electronics in a single unit.

In March, Mettler-Toledo Process Analytics released the 450TOC Portable Total Organic Carbon Analyzer for use in pure water and ultrapure-water treatment applications.

In April, Bürkert launched the Type 8905 online water-analysis system. Sensor chips are integrated into parameter-specific analysis cubes, which are hot swappable.