Block Engineering Introduces Family of Quantum Cascade Laser Mid-IR Spectrometers

MARLBOROUGH, Mass., Aug. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Block Engineering, a leading developer of mid-infrared spectroscopy sensors, announced today the launch of a family of next-generation, revolutionary spectrometers based on widely tunable quantum cascade lasers (QCLs). Daniel Cavicchio, chairman of Block Engineering, commented, "This announcement is a significant milestone in Block's history and it is the result of a multiyear focused development effort, which was supported by significant government and internal funding. Our customers have received these products very well and we look forward to strong growth over the next few years."

"The applications of QCLs are so broad that we have attracted strong interest from both commercial and government customers," said Adam Erlich, VP of Marketing and Business Development of Block Engineering. "This is the reason for introducing three products at the onset: LaserScan™, which can analyze surface chemistries from a distance of 6 inches to 2 feet; LaserScope™, which is a high-performance IR microscope; and LaserTune™, which is a tunable QCL source used by researchers. Because all these products have enhanced performance versus traditional Fourier Transformed Infrared (FTIR) spectrometers, we are experiencing huge interest among military users, life science researchers, pharmaceutical/chemical companies, plastic products manufacturers and environmental firms."

Petros Kotidis, CEO of Block Engineering, commented, "Block's staff has unique, deep knowledge of spectroscopy, rugged packaging, signal processing and decades of experience in new product introduction for both commercial and government markets. These new products have been developed in record time and I am very pleased to see that we are meeting and exceeding our customers' needs in our new and exciting target markets."

These products will be showcased at the American Chemical Society Exposition in Boston on August 22-26, 2010.

About Block Engineering:

Founded in 1956, Block Engineering is a leading developer of high performance QCL and FT-IR spectrometers for chemical detection and analysis to military, government, commercial, and industrial customers. Its Mobile Chemical Agent Detector (MCAD) system, in partnership with Northrop Grumman Corporation, and, PORTHOS™, a portable FT-IR spectrometer system, remotely detect chemical threats as far as 3 miles and protect against chemical warfare agents and weapons of mass destruction. Following this success, Block has applied its extensive knowledge of spectroscopy and chemical detection towards the commercialization of its high performance QCL based spectrometers. In addition, Block is developing a revolutionary MEMS-based, miniaturized spectrometer, the ChemPen™, which is a low cost, FTIR chemical gas detector the size of a fountain pen.

Block Engineering is headquartered in Marlborough, Massachusetts, USA. For more information, visit www.blockeng.com or contact Adam Erlich at (508) 251-3100.

This release was issued through The Xpress Press News Service, merging e-mail and satellite distribution technologies to reach business analysts and media outlets worldwide. For more information, visit http://www.XpressPress.com.

SOURCE Block Engineering