The quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) is a very sensitive instrument for measuring mass, capable of measuring nanogram quantities of substances deposited on specially prepared quartz crystals, which are typically disk-shaped. Quartz is used due to its strong piezoelectric response: vibrations in the crystal create electrical pulses and vice versa. As with the quartz crystal in […]

Airgas named James A. Muller senior vice president, Specialty Gases and Life Sciences, in January. He was previously president of Airgas East. In March, Air Liquide purchased Linde Gas UK based on an enterprise value of €105 million ($138.2 million). Air Liquide UK’s sales are around €60 million ($78.9 million). In March, Corning Life Sciences […]

In the first quarter of 2007, revenues for IBO’s Laboratory Sales Index grew an impressive 11.6% to $4,101 million. Operation profit jumped 14.0% to $654 million and operating margin climbed 50 basis points to 16% of sales. More than half of the companies realized significant improvements in operating profits, but those were offset by declining […]

Atomic Spectroscopy Bruker AXS also unveiled some important x-ray components, such as the XFlash SDD detector that is now standard on the S2 Ranger and the new version of the MicroStar x-ray source. The MicroStar Ultra can provide a flux of 80 billion x-rays per square millimeter per second, similar to the performance of some […]

Waltham, MA 3/20/07; Dusseldorf, Germany 3/20/07—Thermo Fisher Scientific and Gerresheimer have announced a joint venture to manufacture glass labware for scientific laboratories. Gerresheimer will hold a 51% in the joint venture, which will be named Kimble/Chase Life Scienceware and will be based in New Jersey. Kimble/Chase Life Scienceware will include Thermo Fisher Scientific’s Chase Scientific, […]

Atomic Spectroscopy Bruker AXS, following the acquisition of Quantron (see IBO 9/15/06), released “Brukerized” versions of Quantron’s arc-spark instruments around the first of the year. The Q6 Columbus is a laboratory system, as is the Q8 Magellan, which is priced at about $65,000. The Q8 Coronado (based on the Magellan) is an automated system for […]