Equipment Report

Thermo Electron Corp., Waltham, Mass., has announced that its family of Niton X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) analyzers has recently been awarded a Gold IDEA (Industrial Design Excellence Award) in the Medical & Scientific Products category.

The IDEA awards are dedicated to fostering business and public understanding of the importance of industrial design excellence to the quality of life and the economy. The awards are co-sponsored by the Industrial Designers Society of America (IDSA) and BusinessWeek magazine. Altitude Inc., a Massachusetts based strategic product development firm, designed Thermo’s award-winning portable XRF analyzer line.

With the rugged environments where these analyzers are put to use in mind, Altitude’s designers worked closely with Thermo engineers and scientists to develop an XRF analyzers that would maximize operators’ productivity. According to Thermo, Niton’s XLi, XLp and XLt Series XRF analyzers determine approximate sample chemistries and identify many types of samples in as little as one second. "We are extremely pleased that the Niton XRF analyzer family has been awarded the prestigious IDEA Gold award, particularly after winning an R&D 100 award for its achievements in applied research and development from an industry journal on research and development. But the real validation of the product’s design has come from our customers; product sales have increased more than 175 percent over the past three years, leading to the acquisition of Niton by Thermo in March 2005," says Bob Churchwell, vice president of portable XRF analyzer manufacturing at Thermo.

Additional information on Thermo Electron’s family of Niton XRF analyzers and accessories is available online at www.thermo.com/niton, by e-mailing analyze@thermo.com or by calling (800) 875-1578.