Company Announcements

INFICON fourth quarter 2014 Emergency Response & Security sales rose 23.1% to $13.3 million. In 2014, segment sales grew 32.0% to $35.9 million to account for 12% of revenues, due largely to government spending in North America. First quarter segment revenue declined 55.7% to $3.9 million.

In February, Alpha MOS announced the creation of a US company, BOYD Sense, dedicated to the development of electronic nose solutions based on miniaturized sensory nanosensors to be used in industrial and consumer applications, including health, well-being and the environment.

For its latest fiscal year (October 1, 2014–December 31, 2014), Alpha MOS revenues rose 21.1% to €2.1 million ($2.6 million). Japan, Europe, US and the rest of Asia accounted for 35%, 27%, 18% and 15% of sales, respectively. Orders totaled €2.3 million ($2.8 million). The company stated that it remains focused on reorganizing its structure and increasing its concentration on selected markets, including food quality, and air quality and safety.

In March, VUV Analytics named Chromatographic Specialties as a Canadian distributor for the VGA-100.

In April, VUV Analytics announced the final closing of a $9 million Series A and venture debt financing. Clark Jernigan, formerly a venture partner at Austin Ventures, was named CEO. VUV Founder Sean Jameson transitioned to senior vice president of Business Development.

Agilent Technologies and Scion Instruments, a TechComp company, announced a GC instrument–control exchange agreement.

Product Introductions

JEOL launched in January the JMS-T200 GC-TOF MS with a mass range of m/z 4–6,000, a mass resolution of 10,000 FWHM and a data-acquisition speed of 50 spectra/sec.

JEOL introduced the AccuTOF-GCx, its fourth generation GC-TOF MS system, featuring new software methods and tools to simplify the analysis of GC x GC/HRMS data sets from complex mixtures.

In March, Shimadzu Scientific Instruments released its new GC/MS Smart Database Series, comprised of separate databases for analyzing pesticides, forensic toxicological substances, metabolites and environmental pollutants.

Shimadzu Scientific Instruments released LabSolutions Insight software for GC/MS multianalyte data analysis, featuring three chromatogram views.

Shimadzu Scientific Instruments launched the AOC-6000 robotic autosampler, featuring a syringe tool exchanger.

Horizon Discovery released the Horizon Diplomat Sampler Controller, enabling the use of an Agilent 7693 or Agilent 7683 autosampler with an HP 5890 or HP 6890A GC.