Portable XRF wins industrial design award

Industrial Design Excellence Award (Idea) goes to family of X-ray fluorescence analysers used for nondestructive testing including RoHS and WEEE compliance and metal alloy sorting

Thermo Electron reports that its family of Niton X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysers has recently been awarded a Gold Idea (Industrial Design Excellence Award) in the medical and 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.

Thermo's award winning portable XRF analyser line was designed by Altitude, a Massachusetts based strategic product development firm.

Thermo's family of Niton portable X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysers are used worldwide for a variety of nondestructive testing applications, including RoHS and WEEE compliance, metal alloy sorting, positive material inspection, mineral exploration and mining, precious metals analysis, environmental risk assessment and lead paint testing.

In addition to high performance, the award winning industrial design of these hand held instruments increases their usefulness and the benefits to users.

The small size, light weight, ruggedness, ease of use and good ergonomics are critical for the demanding field applications of XRF, where instruments must work in a wide range of environmental conditions and in many instances take upwards of one thousand readings per day.

With this in mind, Altitude's designers worked closely with Thermo engineers and scientists to develop a new generation of XRF analysers that maximise operators' productivity.

Niton's XLi, XLp and XLt series XRF analysers determine approximate sample chemistries and identify many types of samples in as little as one second.

The XLi series is said to be the smallest, lightest weight XRF analyser in the world.

All Niton XRF analyzers are water resistant, dust proof, and built to meet the demands of the most rigorous testing conditions.

"We are extremely pleased that the Niton XRF analyser family has been awarded the prestigious Idea Gold award, particularly after winning an R and 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% over the past three years, leading to the acquisition of Niton by Thermo in March 2005," says Bob Churchwell, vice president of portable XRF analyser manufacturing at Thermo.

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