Category: Company News

As more businesses begin to reopen, fire departments will be faced with challenges to prevent the spread COVID-19 in their facilities and on their equipment.  To aid fire departments, first responders, and businesses, IDEX Fire & Safety recently developed a portable system that, when paired with EPA-approved disinfectants*, combats the spread of COVID-19 (SARS-CoV- 2).

With the stay-at-home order in effect, Hale employees in Florida, and Akron Brass employees in Ohio collaborated through regular conference calls and sent parts to an IDEX engineer to test components in their garage.

The result, is a durable, CDC-compliant, low-cost disinfectant system with a small electric chemical pump, hose, nozzle, and wand to deliver disinfectants in targeted areas.

Its compact size makes it ideal for use in fire apparatus, ambulances, law enforcement vehiclesand field hospitals, and the compact size makes it convenient for tight storage spaces.

Focused on aiding their customers, IDEX Fire & Safety businesses worked together remotely to drive the sprayer from concept to production in just five weeks.

“It has been remarkably challenging, but we hope this product will help build confidence in our first responders by providing a safe way to disinfect their equipment,” said Alyson McWherter, Director of Business Optimization at IDEX Fire & Safety.

Additional features include:

• ​​Piston-style pump

• ​Self-contained, stand-alone system

• ​Wheeled cart

• ​Sprayer tank capacity of up to 5-gallons

• ​Trigger control Sprayer wand

• ​Three nozzles with different spray flow rates

 

 

As we battle COVID-19, ​IDEX Team members continue to come together to support one another during these challenging times.

To capture some words of appreciation and encouragement from team members, we produced a video of employees thanking one another across the globe.

​IDEX Health & Science (IH&S) recently announced the release of its Finger Lakes Instrumentation (FLI) Kepler KL6060 Scientific CMOS (sCMOS) camera for Space Debris Detection and Space Situational Awareness applications.

The KL6060 is a large format 37.7-megapixel cooled sCMOS camera that allows companies to detect, track, and identify objects in orbit, ensuring their satellites are not disrupted or damaged.

The camera is can take images of up to 19 frames per second using the optional QSFP fiber interface, and is available with a high-QE back illuminated sensor or with a cost effective front illuminated sensor.

The KL6060 delivers a high dynamic range 16-bit image using FLI’s proprietary algorithms to ensure an exceptionally linear image.

“This new large format camera is an affordable game-changing solution for Space Debris Detection and Space Situational Awareness applications and is ideal for universities or dedicated amateurs who want to image wide field of views at high frame rates”, said Gregory Terrance Site Leader for IH&S’ FLI Camera Products.

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Acquired by IDEX Health & Science in July 2018, Finger Lakes Instrumentation is a technology leader in the design, development and production of low noise cooled CCD and high-speed, high-sensitivity cooled sCMOS cameras for the astronomy and life science markets since 1998. Today Finger Lakes Instrumentation cameras are used in more than 50 countries for astronomical research, life science imaging, veterinary radiology, forensics, transmission electron microscopy, and a wide range of other applications. Additional products and capabilities include focusers, filter wheels, software development and mechanical engineering. For more information visit: www.flicamera.com

 

(Image Above: The Melotte 15​ Nebula taken with an FLI Kepler KL4040 camera.​)

Toptech Systems, which manufactures presets and automation software for the oil industry, won the 2020 Global Tank Storage Award for Terminal Optimization in Rotterdam, Netherlands last month.

The award goes to a company with software, services, or models that succeed in optimizing, streamlining or improving storage terminals.

With the recent addition of the TMS6 Flex, and TMS7 terminal management systems, Toptech team members have developed technologies to help customers keep track of how much oil has been loaded, what’s been offloaded, and what drivers are authorized to load.

Toptech also manufactures hardware for the driver interface, and hosts software for analytics, fuel allocations, customer onboarding and data management.

“For over 30 years Toptech has focused on providing reliable, efficient and innovative solutions for terminal management by working side by side with our customers, driven to improve and optimize their operations,” said Annelies Godefroit, Business Development Manager at Toptech Systems.

“We are proud to have been recognized by the industry as the premier terminal optimization provider around the globe,” she said.

The Global Tank Storage Awards is a premier awards ceremony in the Oil & Gas terminal market and is designed to highlight those that excel in a range of different categories relating to terminal achievements, equipment innovations, ports and individual accomplishments

To see a recap video of the award ceremony, click here

The discovery and early identification of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, was made possible by Next-Generation DNA sequencing technology (NGS). This discovery was made very quickly after the disease emerged in Wuhan, China and represents the all-important first step in identifying the virus genome. This sequencing allows for the testing and treatment development processes to kick into high gear. One of the earliest published articles on the novel coronavirus discusses the NGS methods used to examine its genome.

IDEX Health & Science (IH&S) has long played an enabling role in NGS with its fluidic and optical products and strong engineering partnerships with sequencing companies. DNA sequencing manufacturers rely on IH&S to design and manufacture fluidic and optical components and sub-systems. Our sites in Bristol, CT, Rohnert Park, CA, Middleboro, MA, Oak Harbor, WA, and Kawaguchi, Japan focus on advanced fluidic systems technologies that partition, degas, and mix sequencing fluids, while our Rochester, NY, and Carlsbad, CA sites innovate the optical systems that have helped to greatly improve sequencing throughput and efficiencies.

Discovering the RNA sequence of SARS-CoV-2 enables the development of the diagnostic tests that are in such high demand. These tests are possible due to a technology known as polymerase chain reaction, or PCR. The invention of PCR more than 30 years ago is considered one of the greatest inventions of the last century. It’s a procedure in which millions of copies of a pathogen’s genetic material are made so they can be detected from a patient sample. It is essentially an amplification method, whereby small amounts of genetic material that may be present in bodily fluids, hair, or tissues can be increased so that there is enough for analysis. Testing is crucial to stem the spread of COVID-19 because it allows health care workers to identify and quarantine infected people. This is a critical step in mitigating the spread so that COVID-19 does not overwhelm healthcare systems.

IDEX Health & Science works with many diagnostic companies around the world who are creating new PCR assays and instrument platforms to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. Examples of our contribution to this technology can be seen in our Semrock line of optical filters that are employed in many PCR optical detection systems. These filters improve detection sensitivity by separating the signal from the noise and select for a targeted wavelength of light emitted from a PCR probe that measures the amount of SARS-CoV-2. Our microfluidics business lines in Zweibrucken, Germany and Wallingford, Connecticut provide high precision devices for the critical manipulation of PCR fluids and reagents.

While the current focus is to detect cases of COVID-19, we anticipate that the next phase will be to ramp testing capacity to support COVID-19 patients and to measure and track populations who have gained immunity due to exposure to SARS-CoV-2. Our core capabilities in life science applications along with the products designed and manufactured at all of our fluidics sites play a large role in supporting clinical chemistry analyzers and high throughput immunoassay platforms.

We are living our mission, “Trusted Solutions, Improving Lives”, like never before. Our efforts to support our customers, who develop and supply key instruments, are an essential part of our healthcare infrastructure.

“From the characterization of this new virus to mass testing, IDEX Health & Science has played a critical role in supporting our customers whose instruments are being used 24/7 in the fight against this pandemic. I could not be prouder of our employees as they deliver on our mission and take care of each other during these extraordinary times.” Joe Rytell, President, IDEX Health & Science.

Learn more about IDEX Health & Science at www.idex-hs.com

 

 

As the magnitude of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak in Wuhan, China became clear, the Chinese government mobilized its resources and set out to build two new hospitals in less than two weeks. To help make it happen Chinese government suppliers reached out to IDEX China for several mission-critical components.

Even though businesses were already closed for the Lunar New Year holiday and many employees had begun traveling to visit family for the holiday break, the great teams of IDEX assembled and shipped a variety of orders for coronavirus response.

The IDEX efforts have included:

• Pulsafeeder SPO donating LB series and LCC4 dosing pumps to the Red Cross of Yangzhou to disinfect waste water in the new hospitals;
• BAND-IT supplying clamps for 1,300 new ambulances and other vehicles for emergency medical transport;
• Gast delivering pumps for ventilation in the hospitals; and
• IDEX Health & Science providing degassers, tubing and connections for blood chemistry analyzers, and tubing and connections for Chemiluminescence Immunoassay Analyzers.

IDEX China continues to place the health of its employees above all else, checking daily on not only the health of our employees, but also their families. We are proud of IDEX teams in China who contributed to the hospital and ambulance building projects. Please keep our Chinese colleagues in your thoughts during this challenging time.