Company Announcements

Bigneat, a UK-based manufacturer of hoods and enclosures with 50 employees, opened its first US office in October 2014.

Huber announced in December 2014 the establishment of a US subsidiary in North Carolina to serve the US, Canada and Mexico.

ATCC and LGC agreed to provide proficiency-testing programs to support the food, beverage, animal feed and pharmaceutical QC markets in the US.

Biomatrica, a supplier of products for stabilizing biological samples and assays at ambient temperatures, named Nick Esos as CEO. Most recently, he served as vice president and general manager, Licensing and Commercial Partnering, at Thermo Fisher Scientific.

Porvair announced that Seal Analytical sales for the fiscal year ending November 30, 2014, grew 13%.

Eppendorf announced that China’s Beijing First Intermediate People’s Court ruled in its favor, finding that Hangzhou Allsheng Instruments and its distributor, Beijing Aochuang Industrial Technology Development, infringed upon Eppendorf’s patent covering vortexing technology for mixers used in its MixMate. The ruling forbids production, offer and sales of the infringing mixer, and awards monetary damages and compensation.

LabMinds, a developer of automated solution-preparations systems, raised £2.1 billion ($3.2 million) in funding in February.

Product Introductions

OHAUS launched the Adventurer analytical and precision balances, featuring nine application modes.

Poulten & Graf introduced its VOLAC glassware and Fortuna liquid-handling products in the US in December 2014.

FOSS released the Alphatec FNo for performing the standard falling number test, which is used to check sprouting damage in grain and enzyme activity in flour.

Consolidated Sterilizer Systems introduced in January the EZ-Glide Vertical Sliding Door Autoclaves models 26AV and 26BV, featuring power door operating.

Integra introduced 50 µL models of its VIAFLOW II electronic pipette range.

Thermo Fisher Scientific launched the Thermo Scientific mySPIN 6 and mySPIN 12 mini centrifuges, designed for protocols requiring quick spin downs, microfilter cell separations and HPLC samples.

Thermo Fisher Scientific released Ultrapure Fisher Chemical Optima and GC Resolv methylene chloride solutions for trace analysis using GC and GC/MS.

In January, Merck Millipore launched the AFS 40E/80E/120E and 150E water-purification systems, developed for clinical labs with daily water volumes of up to 3,000 L. The systems are mobile and customizable.