A distinguished jury from American R&D magazine has honoured a mid-infrared (MIR) spectrometer from Endress+Hauser (E+H) with its R&D 100 innovation award - judging it to be 100 most technologically significant products over the last year.
Inline MIR spectroscopy offers continuous monitoring of the concentration of liquids that consist of several components to ensure efficient process control.
According to E+H, its MIR spectrometer is a novel concept. For example, as the first process-suitable spectrometer, it can be directly connected to the process via standard retractable assemblies and can be easily cleaned. Simple to operate, the MIR spectrometer determines concentrations quickly and precisely and can even be used in hazardous area applications.
The MIR spectrometer was developed in co-operation with German company Bayer Technology Services (BTS). The strategic partnership with Endress+Hauser reflects the growing need in many process industries to optimise production processes by using online analysis measurement.
The R&D 100 award is awarded by a distinguished jury comprising professional consultants, university representatives, and researchers from industry who all have considerable experience and expertise in the fields of evaluation. The award was established in 1963 as a national US award with the first international participants receiving an award just two years later. The jury has a distinguished history in awarding products that have become household names of the future: the ATM (1973), halogen bulb (1974), fax machine (1975), liquid crystal display (1980), printer (1986), Nicoderm stop-smoking patch (1992), Taxol anticancer drug (1993), 'lab on a chip' (1996) and HDTV (1998).
In addition to the MIR spectrometer, E+H has also won several international awards and prizes for innovation for its Memosens technology. Memosens is the world's first non-contact sensor system offering interference-free transmission of measured values. The digital sensor's re-calibration possibilities and extended lifetime provides new cost-saving concepts in terms of maintenance requirements.
The company also has reason to celebrate its ongoing success in the electromagnetic flowmeter business.
Today they are used primarily in water management, in the process industry, pharmaceuticals and in the food industry. Typical measuring tasks include recording and monitoring continual flow rates, filling and dosing applications as well as use in custody transfer. A large number of aqueous-based fluids can be measured with electromagnetic flowmeters: water, wastewater, sludges, pulps, pastes, acids, alkali, juices, fruit mashes and more.
In May 2008 sales of E+H electromagnetic flowmeters topped the million mark (Fig.1). The company is celebrating this by supporting a water project in Mozambique undertaken by the Swiss development organisation Helvetas to the tune of CHF50000 (EUR31500).
Cabo Delgado Province lies in North Mozambique, about 2000 km from the capital city of Maputo. Water provision in many places is inadequate. In the countryside fewer than half the population has access to clean drinking water.
The primary aim of the supported project is the lasting improvement of the rural drinking water supply and sanitation in an area with about 300000 inhabitants. The activities tie in with Helvetas' 25 years of experience in Mozambique. Working together with villagers and the authorities, disintegrated wells are rebuilt, silted-up boreholes cleared and faulty pumps replaced. To ensure the provision of drinking water in the long-term, the population has been involved from the outset in all stages of the project.
