Mountain View, CA. Spectra-Physics has announced a brand integration with six Thermo Electron businesses, uniting the existing laser business with Laser Science, the operations and catalog of Oriel (including Opticon products), the specialty components of Corion, Hilger Crystals, and RGL (Richardson Gratings), and the imaging-camera business of CIDTEC. In terms of the breadth of technology involved, this is the single biggest brand merger in the history of the photonics industry.
According to Guy Broadbent, president, "Spectra-Physics already has a comprehensive product line of innovative lasers including high-power diodes, diode-pumped lasers, and ultrafast systems. Combining our strengths in lasers with our photonics product lines puts us in a unique position to serve both established and nascent applications of lasers, optics, and imaging. In a nutshell, our goal is to use this platform to simplify and expand the use of photonics as a critically enabling technology - for end-users as well OEMs."
Broadbent explained that Spectra-Physics intends to use this integration as a springboard for expanding the markets for both its standard and custom products, and to position it to provide extended OEM services, including design, prototyping, and manufacturing of systems and sub-assemblies. Notes Broadbent, "By using Spectra-Physics as an extension of their own resources, customers can achieve shorter design-in time, fewer prototype iterations, and lower project risk. These benefits will be of particular value to those who are early in their adoption of photonic technology, as well as those who wish to focus more on their own core competencies."
In another key aspect of the integration, the company is retooling and enhancing the well-known Oriel Book of Photon Tools catalog. With more than 4,000 items backed by technical information and support, the catalog offers researchers and engineers not only one-stop convenience, but a window into the world of photonics - from lasers to components to new products for the lab.
According to Broadbent, "Current customers will continue to receive the quality products and outstanding service they've come to expect, but now we are placing an important new emphasis on working together across the organization to provide more comprehensive services and integrated offerings."
Founded in 1961, Spectra-Physics was the first commercial laser business and has grown to become a global leader in the design, development, manufacture, and distribution of high-power semiconductor and solid-state lasers for industrial, scientific, electronics, and biomedical markets. Today, Spectra-Physics has expanded to provide a broader spectrum of photonics products, capabilities, and services including Corion thin-film interference filters, Hilger scintillation and electro-optic crystals, replicated diffraction gratings from Richardson Gratings, Oriel optical components and instruments (including Opticon mirrors), and CIDTEC charged-injection device (CID) solid state video cameras. The Book of Photon Tools offers catalog customers a full complement of laser and photonics products as well as a wealth of technical information and applications expertise.
Spectra-Physics is a wholly owned business of Thermo Electron Corporation.
For more information, visit www.spectra-physics.com.
Thermo Electron Corporation helps laboratory and industrial customers advance scientific knowledge, enable drug discovery, improve manufacturing processes, and protect people and the environment with instruments, scientific equipment, and sample-in/knowledge-out solutions. Based in Waltham, MA, Thermo Electron has revenues of more than $2 billion, and employs approximately 11,000 people in 30 countries worldwide.
For more information, visit www.thermo.com.