Company Announcements

Italy’s Istituto Nazionale di Ottica-CNR and Planetary Emissions Management announced in December 2014 that they are developing a portable system based on the saturated-absorption cavity ring-down method for measurement of atmospheric radiocarbon dioxide.

In January, B&W Tek opened an office in Taipei, Taiwan, its fifth international office.

In February, Datacolor announced that it plans to establish direct sales and service operations in Italy in April.

Newly formed Unchained Labs completed a $25 million Series A financing in February and acquired the Raman spectroscopy–based Optim multiplex protein-stability platform technology from the Avacta Group for $3.5 million in initial consideration and up to $1.5 million based on future sales. Optim formed substantially all the assets of Avacta Analytical, which had fiscal 2014 revenues of £1.6 million ($2.6 million) and an operating profit of £0.1 million ($0.2 million).

Product Introductions

FOSS introduced the Infratec NOVA, its sixth-generation Infratec NIR testing platform for grain handling, formerly known as the Infratec 1241 Grain Analyzer. It is 20% faster than the previous model and 30% smaller.

Sage Analytics introduced in December 2014 the affordable and portable Luminary Profiler for potency testing of cannabis products. It measures THC, CBD and CBN.

Rigaku Raman Technologies launched the Progeny ResQ handheld Raman analyzer for security applications, specifically, routine response tactics.

In January, Shimadzu Scientific Instruments released the UV-1280 multipurpose UV-Vis spectrophotometer for wavelength scanning from 190 nm to 1,100 nm. It features seven measurement modes.

In February, Ocean Optics introduced the Flame spectrometer for the 190–1,110 nm wavelength range. The miniature spectrometer features interchangeable slits and simpler device connections.

Anton Paar launched the Alex 500 alcohol and extract meter for beer, featuring NIR-based absorption measurement and density measurement based on oscillating U-tube technology.

Datacolor released the redesigned CHECK 3 portable spectrophotometer, with a new horizontal configuration.

TeraView introduced the TeraPulse 4000 terahertz spectrometer, which is smaller and more portable than the TeraPulse 3000 and is designed to be configured for a variety of lab, production and industrial applications. It is available with an on-board spectroscopy/imaging compartment or with fibers.

Avantes released the portable AvaSpec-NIR256-2.5-HSC spectrometer, which is lighter and smaller than the previous model and has a wavelength range of 1,000–2,500 nm.