Category: Company News

Recognized as a leader in Optics & Fluidics, IDEX Health & Science unveiled its new Film Degasser to the Fluidics industry last month. The Film Degasser is a component in the fluidic path of an instrument used to improve instrument precision and reliability by removing dissolved gases from fluids before they outgas and create problem-causing bubbles in High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) applications.

HPLC is a technology used to separate and identify mixtures of substances in a solution and measure individual components of a mixture – often helping test drugs for the Food and Drug Administration. The technology is also used to identify carcinogen compounds, pesticides and poisons to help improve water purification.

Using a high-efficiency membrane and unique flow channel design, the Film Degasser, which is about the size of a pack of gum, provides more performance and the lowest fluidic resistance in the industry.

Further enhanced with vacuum control methodology for consistent performance, the Film Degasser uses a patent-pending algorithm, which allows advanced control to select the optimal degassing efficiency for any HPLC separation method. It also enables users to integrate the degasser into the separation method control protocol and select a given efficiency for any HPLC system, which can be programmed to exact specifications for every application.

“As a market leader in degassing technology, our latest product is aimed at revolutionizing degassing in the industry. With it, we have created a versatile, high-performance system that is suitable for universal application,” said Saba Jazeeli, Senior Product Manager of the Analytical Instrument Market at IDEX Health & Science.  “It eliminates the design limitations of tubing-based degassers, delivering reduced pervaporation and a lower environmental impact by controlling the discharge of solvent vapors to the laboratory atmosphere.”

To learn more about the Film Degasser, click here

To watch a video of how the Film Degasser works, click here

BAND-IT in Chesterfield, United Kingdom was recently featured on Channel 5’s “Britain’s Greatest Bridges”.

At 2.2 km (1.37 miles) long, the Humber Bridge in Yorkshire, England, was the world’s longest single-span suspension bridge when it was completed in 1981. Longer than the Golden Gate Bridge in the United States, Humber Bridge is fortified with BAND-IT steel buckles and bands.

BAND-IT products are still used on the Humber Bridge today, as well as two other notable U.K. suspension bridges – the Forth Road Bridge in Scotland (2.5 km long) and the Severn Bridge (1.6 km) between South Gloucestershire in England and Monmouthshire in South East Wales.

The below image shows our Giant Band being installed on the suspension cables during the construction of the Humber Bridge some 40 years ago.

The TV series, which is produced by Viacom, focuses on six of Britain’s most iconic bridges and how they were designed and constructed.

If you’re located in the UK, you can watch the video here

 

 

The Fitzpatrick Company recently partnered with Siemens, a global electrification, automation and digitization provider, on the development of the control system on their Contained Compaction System (CCS) which is used by the pharmaceutical industry to create granulated powders during the manufacture of Oral Solid Dosage.

To watch a video of how the product works, click here

After years of success with its CCS family of roller compactors, Fitzpatrick team members wanted to update the control software and incorporate the latest automation advances to remain competitive.

The goal was to come up with a smaller, lighter machine –all managed by an easy-to-use automation system for monitoring and control, complete with reporting capabilities fully compliant with requirements mandated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States and matched by similar requirements of other national regulators. That’s when Arash Avvali, Senior Controls Engineer at IDEX MPT, tapped on Siemens Corporation.

“Siemens automation system is the most user friendly. It’s so much easier to troubleshoot. There’s way less wiring too. And the cost is lower as well,” Arash said. “Their Portal Software is also super powerful and has lots of great features. It’s so easy to work with”

A Safety Controller was put in place to anchor the solution, complemented with a Panel PC to help manage all the reporting requirements, and Comfort Panels to make operating the machines simple and intuitive, with an abundance of information made available. The whole solution was engineered to not only be extremely reliable, but also very flexible, giving the IDEX MPT team the ability to make refinements for customers tailored to their specific needs and requests.

In 2018, several customers were able to test prototypes of the product and praised the CCS for its compact size, ease of use and the ability to clean the product more regularly.

Orders from this project have boosted sales in 2019, keeping Fitzpatrick in a competitive leadership position in years to come.

The Fitzpatrick Company and Quadro Engineering Corp. are Units of IDEX Material Processing Technologies and have been trusted partners of the majority of the world’s top pharmaceutical, chemical and food ingredient processing customers. IDEX Material Process Technologies (MPT) includes four companies — Quadro, Fitzpatrick, Matcon and Microfluidics.

 

 

Weldon, a unit of Akron Brass, partnered with “Wagons Ho Ho Ho” on “Build Day” last week, packing Christmas dinners for local families, all in a shiny new red wagon.

Thirty-three Weldon team members worked alongside other community sponsors to build 1,500 Roadmaster Pacific Cycle wagons, and pack them with dinners with turkey, corn, yams, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy and green beans.

In months leading up to “Build Day”, Weldon team members collected more than 600 cans of corn, 100 cans of green beans and 500 boxes of stuffing, which were used to pack the dinners.

Based in Columbus, Ohio, Wagons Ho Ho Ho is a charity that delivers hope to families in need throughout central Ohio during the holidays.

To watch a video of Build Day from 2017, click here

Weldon produces multiplexing electronics and lighting used in the fire truck, emergency vehicle, and school bus markets

Amanda Macuiba, a Compensation Analyst at IDEX Corporate in Chicago, qualified for the 2020 USA Olympic Track & Field Trials by finishing in less than 2 hours 45 minutes at the California International Marathon in Sacramento on Sunday.

To qualify for the Women’s US Olympic Team Trials, participants must finish a marathon (26.2 miles) in less than 2:45:00. Amanda sped through the course with an average pace of 6:17 minutes/mile and finished with 31 seconds to spare and a personal best time of 2:44:29.

“Around mile 17, I began to get tired and started to struggle. I negotiated internally and forced myself to stay engaged. I saw a couple of girls who were also trying to qualify, and just focused on remaining close to them,” Amanda said. “Around mile 20, I found a second wind. My mentality completely shifted, and I realized that I could still do it!”

“I love being able to set goals, especially when it’s a stretch, and see them accomplished,” she said. “Unreal is the only word I have. All those 100-mile weeks, all of the exhaustion paid off. Crossing the finish line, I’ve never felt more prideful.”

“It’s baffling and amazing at the same time,” she said.

Growing up, Amanda’s family vacations were tied to the locations of the Ironman Triathlons in which her father raced. She began running when she joined the cross country team in high school, but focused on soccer as she entered her freshman year of college at Illinois Wesleyan University.

She decided to leave the soccer team after her freshman year and began running the Steeplechase for the Illinois Wesleyan Track & Field team in 2013. Embracing her new sport, she ran her first marathon in Vienna, Austria, in 2015 and competed in the Division III Women’s National Outdoor Championships during her senior year of college.

After graduating college, Amanda ran six more marathons, including the Boston, Chicago, and California International, before deciding to train for the Olympic trials. When she attempted to qualify for the trials earlier in 2019, she ran the Illinois Marathon in 2 hours 50 minutes.

“I was so frustrated with myself (for not qualifying), that I immediately registered for the CIM (California International Marathon). I knew I had run a personal best there a year earlier, and wanted to give myself a six month training cycle,” she said.

With the help of family friend and 1996 US Olympic Trial Winner Jenny Spangler, Amanda significantly improved her speed in short distances, long-term endurance, strength, and flexibility over the last six months.

Amanda will continue to partner with Jenny and plans to start training again as early as next week.

The 2020 USA Olympic Track & Field Trials will take place in Atlanta, Georgia on Saturday, February 29. The three women with the fastest finishes will make the U.S. Olympic Team and will compete in the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo.

About 200 women competed in the U.S. Olympic Trials marathon in February 2016. The winners who went on to the games in Rio de Janeiro all had times just under 2 hours 30 minutes.

Congratulations, Amanda!!

 

 

 

LUKAS demonstrated the battery-powered, watertight eWXT rescue tools at the ninth annual “Long Nights of Sciences” event in Erlangen, Germany last month.

Held every other year, The Long Night of Sciences (Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften) is one of the largest scientific communication events in the Nuremberg metropolitan region, bringing together more than 20,000 science enthusiasts from Nuremberg, Fürth, and Erlangen, Germany. Members of the general public attend lectures and see demonstrations at local institutions from the early evening until past midnight.

To improve brand recognition in Germany, LUKAS team members demonstrated the eWXT tools, and shared information about their rescue tool portfolio with enthusiasts and prospective employees. Attending the event for the first time, LUKAS Team members answered common questions including, “How does eDRAULIC work under water?” and “Why doesn’t the battery explode when submerged in Water?”

With six local universities, private knowledge projects, public institutions and research institutes in attendance, the event allowed LUKAS to expand their network, and further educate people on how their products improve lives in the community.

To watch a recap video of the 2017 event, click here

 

 

With the goal to better serve its customers, Ohio-based Warren Rupp updated their SANDPIPER and Versamatic mobile apps last month.

The new SANDPIPER and Versamatic apps enable users to scan QR codes on their pumps and look up information, while also providing an interactive chemical compatibility guide, and other important resources.

Originally launched in 2014, Warren Rupp’s previous apps were downloaded through the app store, lacked functionality, ease of use, and a modern user experience.

Working with app developer Lumavate, Warren Rupp’s applications transitioned from being hosted on mobile applications to Progressive Web Applications (PWA).

PWAs enable content managers to make updates quickly, which allows the most current product information to be in the customers hands instantaneously. The old, traditional native apps require an update. For development, PWAs are quick to deploy and in this case, was a more cost-effective option compared to native app development. Users can also access the PWA on their desktop, and PWAs take up about 1/10 of the space of a traditional native app.

“For us, it was about developing an app that would provide the most seamless experience for our customers,” said Michelle Miller, Marketing Manager at Warren Rupp. “The biggest thing for us is scalability. There’s a ton of value in knowing that in the future, there are ways that we can add technologies and features and functionality that will further empower and enable our end users.”

To view the SANDPIPER application, click here

To view the Versamatic application, click here

 

When an SUV was involved in a devastating crash in a Florida Intersection, the South Daytona Fire Department relied on their new HURST Jaws of Life rescue tools purchased by Firehouse Subs to help rescue the driver.

Firehouse Subs, a nationwide sandwich restaurant chain founded by former firefighters, recently featured the lifesaving incident, including the HURST Jaws of Life eDRAULIC rescue tool, in a social media campaign.

The video features the South Daytona Fire Department and how they benefited from receiving HURST Jaws of Life rescue tools through the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation.

To watch the video, click here

Since 2017, the HURST team in Shelby, North Carolina, has partnered with Firehouse Subs on commercials and service projects. With similar interests in community outreach, the companies decided to activate their partnership further through the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation in 2018.

Founded in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation provides funding, lifesaving equipment and educational opportunities for first responders and public safety organizations.

Since the Foundation started, it has granted over $46 million to provide equipment, training, and support to hometown heroes

To learn more about the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation, click here

 

Fast & Fluid Management (F&F) continues introducing new versions of its precision paint tinting and mixing equipment, with enhanced features based on feedback from customers’ involvement in the product development process.

To meet the needs of small- to medium-sized businesses, the F&F team recently launched its HA180 dispenser, which includes the same technology as the HA680 and HA480, but in a more compact design.

The compact Harbil offers clever features to make service even easier. A good example of this is the top refill lid. It turns open and shuts in just one movement, with magnets stopping the turntable in position. This turns to the right as standard but can just as easily be changed to the left or front by changing one screw.

F&F recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the opening of a new production line for the Harbil.

Covering the full spectrum of customers – from small paint shops to major industrial users – the development of the Harbil Next Gen series is based not only on research in the field and past results, but also on the Voice of the Customer (VoC) and by including them in the entire development process. Fast & Fluid is based in Sassenheim, the Netherlands.

To learn more about how F&F involves the customer in their product development process, click here

To visit the website, click here

 

In a case study and video, Microsoft recently featured the new “smart truck” technology created by IDEX Fire & Safety in partnership with REV, manufacturer of the highly-rated E-ONE Fire and Rescue vehicles.

 

This new IoT (Internet of Things) system monitors emergency vehicles – from their engines to their pumps and valves – to better anticipate maintenance needs before a truck breaks down, putting lives and property at risk.

 

The system uses Windows 10 IoT and Azure to connect the numerous systems and components of the fire truck, providing technicians and maintenance crews with real-time insights into a vehicle’s health.

 

These diagnostic insights and network capabilities are helping technicians and maintenance crews increase vehicle reliability, reduce downtime, and ultimately save lives.

 

To watch the Microsoft video, click here

 

To read the full Microsoft case study, click here