7:00am Friday 17th August 2007
By Neil Phillips
A TRAILBLAZING piece of nanotechnology with wide industrial applications became an award-winner for Oxford Instruments NanoAnalysis last week.
It was the only business in Buckinghamshire to receive the Queen's Award for Enterprise in the Innovation category.
On Wednesday, July 11, Jenny Hopkirk, the Vice Lord Lieutenant of Buckinghamshire presented the award to David Scott, managing director of Oxford Instruments NanoAnalysis at their Cressex Road factory.
"This award reflects the spirit of innovation that drives our company," said Mr Scott. "It is also a recognition of our strategy to turn our science into commercially successful products."
Guests at the award ceremony included Wycombe Mayor Val Razzaq and John Savage, chairman of Wycombe District Council. They had a tour of the factory and a live demonstration of the work being done in nanotech-nology. The staff enjoyed a champagne reception after the ceremony before being given the afternoon off by way of a special thank you.
The company produces systems for electron microscopes and the award was given in recognition of their development of INCAS-DryCool, pictured left, a unique detector that does not require liquid nitrogen to cool it down. This makes it safer, cleaner and more powerful than other detectors on the market. It is used in industry for quality control purposes, and in research toward safer and stronger materials.
Lynn Shepherd, corporate communications manager, gave some of the many examples of applications for the technology. She said: "It's used to look at the structure of any material and a very small level. The pharmaceutical industry uses it to check the seal is correctly fitted on bottles. It is also used to research and develop sensors used in cars for ABS brake systems, and for quality control."
The machine has a number of wider applications, including use with motion capture devices in the film industry, and even in the medical field looking into eye care.
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.bucksfreepress.co.uk