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Reference standards program update
Fisons acquisition nearly complete
cromass name dates back to 1969 when the company was VG Micromass. The Fisons purchase continues Thermo's strategy of fueling half of its growth through acquisition and the rest by internal growth. Thermo completed six acquisitions in 1995 and has added four more in 1996. The manufacturer hopes to add another "large acquisition" by year's end.
Speaking at a Pittcon news conference, Arvin Smith, head of Thermo Instrument Systems, announced that the instrument manufacturer hadfinallygained "approvSince EPA ended its program for certifyal from everyone significant in the proing standard reference materials for envicess" to complete its acquisition of Fisons ronmental measurements in 1994, refer- Instruments. Completion of the acquisience material manufacturers have been tion will make Thermo Instrument the under pressure to initiate a new program world's largest analytical instrument com(Anal. Chem. 1994, pp. 868 A-872 A). pany (based on sales). The Certified Reference Materials ManuThe Fisons purchase was announced facturers' Association (CRMMA), which at Pittcon last year, but completion of the formed soon after EPA's termination dedeal was held up by U.S. and British fedcision, has taken the lead in structuring a eral trade commissions concerned with HP launching joint new program. However, what shape this the acquisition's effect on the mass specprogram will take remains unclear. trometer market. According to Smith, the ventures At Pittcon this year, the National Insti- agencies cited high-resolution, triple quadrupole, and elemental MS as areas of HP and Bruker announced at Pittcon that tute of Standards and Technology (NIST) concern. Thermo Instrument already added its voice to the effort by proposthey have signed a co-marketing agreeing to CRMMA that it establish a program owns Finnigan and Thermo Jarrell Ash; ment for the Bruker ESQUIRE electrothe Fisons purchase would have added for linking assigned values for commerspray ionization ion-trap mass spectromthe VG MS llne as welll Thermo's solution eter, which will be available with HP LC cial performance evaluation materials to was a "fix-it first" strategy of removing NIST measurements and standards. This and CE systems. Both companies will type of linkage would aid in ensuring that the mass spectrometer business from the distribute and market the products, but sale. After a year of discussion and more analytical numbers reported by one laboBruker will be responsible for quotations, ratory could be correlated with measure- than $2 million in legal costs, the fix-it installations, and service. plan a senior management buyout ments made in another, a key issue in HP has also formed an alliance with won comparing data across national and interShanghai Analytical, which is now 70% HPthe day "We must have worn the trade national markets. owned. According to Richard D. Kniss, commissions down " said Smith general manager of the Chemical Analysis As proposed, NIST and EPA would have The buyout, led by Schroder Ventures, Group for Hewlett Packard, Shanghai Anjoint oversight for the program. linkage will result in a new company called Micro- alytical is the largest provider of locally protocols would be jointly drawn up by mass. The company does not envision a manufactured products in China. NIST, EPA, and CRMMA; NIST would difficult identity transition because the Miadminister the program. Laboratory accreditation would be provided by NISTs National Voluntary Lab Accreditation Program. Although the overall structure of the immunoassay, and field-deployable inDOE s u r v e y program is generally fixed, the details are struments, but not continuous emis"set in Jell-O," said NIST officials. CRMMA reveals field sion monitoring, industrial process has formed a four-member ad-hoc comi n s t r u m e n t needs monitoring, field laboratory equipmittee to work with NIST on developing ment, or radiation detectors. program details; no date has been set for a The Characterization, Monitoring, and The survey found that an estimated formal response from CRMMA Sensor Technology Crosscutting Pro- $1.2—$1.6 billion is spent on site characOther potential players in a new refergram of the Department of Energy terization, including ~ $600 million ence materials program include the Amer(DOE) recently commissioned a market for lab services and $140 million for ican Chemical Society and the American survey ranking the needs of the private field instruments. The market potential Society for Testing and Materials, which sector for chemical sensors and field- for field-deployable instruments and might draw up reference material preparadeployable instrumentation. Glenn J. sensors is $140 million, as well as that tion protocols. In addition, Peter Unger, Bastiaans, senior scientist at the Ames fraction of lab analysis that can be vice president of the American AssociaLaboratory at Iowa State University, moved to thefieldonce instruments tion for Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA), chaired a two-day workshop before generate regulatory quality data. said at Pittcon that their group could proPittcon during which participants joined in The market survey results and the invide third-party accreditation to manufaca needs analysis exercise before hearing put from the workshop and forum will be turers based on ISO 9000 guidelines. the results of the market survey integrated into a final report that will There are even ISO guidelines for manuprovide guidance for DOE program The needs analysis focused on site facturers who wish to self-declare that they managers and is expected to be made characterization and remediation promeet certain standards. EPA officials are cess monitoring, including electro- public by May 31,1996, on the Internet anxious for CRMMA to decide soon on the at http://cms..ameslab.gov. chemical sensors, fiber-optic sensors, new direction. 238 A
Analytical Chemistry News & Features, April 1, 1996
