Exciting Breakthrough- 0.5 micron (500 nm) Exact Leaks!

Lenox Laser has made exciting breakthroughs in the manufacturing processes of exact leaks!

Exact Leaks are calibrated microholes that are repeatedly and reliably generated in packages and/or other pharmaceutical and manufacturing goods.  These microholes are commonly used in integrity testing processes.

Lenox Laser's new process allows the creation of 0.5 micron holes in a wide variety of materials; including plastics and metals.

Please visit here: Services- Exact Leaks  on our website for more information.

Lenox Laser Scholarship- "Evaluation of UV LEDs for detection of atmospheric NO2 by photolysis- chemiluminescence"

Lockheed WP-3D Orion. From NOAA website

 
"Evaluation of ultraviolet light-emitting diodes for detection of atmospheric NO2 by photolysis- chemiluminescence"
 by Ilana B Pollack, Brian M Lerner, and Thomas B Ryerson

This article was accepted to Journal of Atmospheric Chemistry in February of this year, and it details an atmospheric study done in May and June of 2010. Lenox Laser made a total of 3 parts for their studies of different LED detections systems of NO2. For some key background information if one is not familiar, I highly recommend reading this article first:
Flourescence detection of atmospheric nitrogen dioxide using a blue light-emitting diode as an excitation source by Yutaka Matsumi et al. It is much more readable and understandable.

Basically, detection of NO2 in the atmosphere relates to the ozone levels in the atmosphere. Thus, scientists of the field are interested in better, more accurate, and cheaper ways to measure NO2. One of the most recent trends to do so is to use commercially available UV-LEDs in their systems. The systems already often use a UV light source of some kind because in the chemistry of NO2 and related molecules, they will emit light in the process. Atmospheric scientists use this property, called chemiluminescence, to measure the NO2 molecules. Chemiluminescence detection is called P-CL.

In this article, the authors tested 3 UV-LEDs against each other in the P-CL system as shown in the diagram below:

Fig 1 from the paper- schematic of instrumental configuration

I recommend reading the article itself to fully understand the diagram and the process. However, this is where Lenox Laser and our calibrated orifices come in. The red section where it says 700um orifice is where our first orifice was used. This is the bypass inlet, and was used to set the sample flow rate and cell pressure for the entire system. They found that the Nichia LEDs were the best overall.


So for the second part of the test, they took the Nichia LEDs on board the NOAA WP-3D aircraft with the P-CL for "on the job" training in the CalNex study. They replaced the more expensive and complicated mass flow controllers were replaced with our critical orifices and mass flow meters. In the diagram above the two places are indicated by arrows in the blue and black section. Replacing the parts in the system did improve the quality, and, as stated in the conclusion, they "eliminate mechanical components with complex flow paths that degrade time response. Replacing mass flow controllers with critical orifices and mass flow meters further simplifies the sample flow path in these laboratory test."

The NOAA WP-3D aircraft is the plane that flies into hurricanes to monitor and gather information. It took part in CalNex - a study by several universities and institutions of air quality and climate change on the west coast. Our parts were used on board and tested with the UV-LED systems during the study. They even went with the plane as it was briefly diverted from the study to the Gulf of Mexico during the oil spill.


So in conclusion, this research paper incorporates optics, chemistry, and biology with flow technologies, atmospheric studies, and research planes all together, with Lenox Laser parts in the middle of it all!

As always, check out our main website www.lenoxlaser.com to see more of what we do, as well as the rest of this blog. If you have any questions or input, email me at archives@lenoxlaser.com

Developing a Hybrid Neuroprosthesis for Epilepsy Treatment

http://faces.med.nyu.edu/research/research-articles/neuroprosthesis

Laser-Drilling Applications Google Scholar Results

We are doing a lot this year in anticipation of our 2nd International Light Seminar in October as well as in commemoration of this our 30th anniversary. 

We decided that we wanted to get a better handle on where our parts have gone and how they are being used. I have already gone through Lenox Laser in space with NASA here. Now I want to take it back down to Earth.

In order see where our parts have been used and cited, I went to Google Scholar
and searched for "Lenox Laser." Here is the link to the results: Google Scholar. What I found was fascinating.


While not all of the results are accessible, those that are provide key insights into laser-drilling applications. The three broad categories are articles, patents, and theses and dissertations. In my research, I have broken them down accordingly and ordered them chronologically by publication year. The following graph illustrates the results:

click on the picture to enlarge

Here one can see a snapshot of Lenox Laser and how we are increasingly in demand. This also illustrates how laser-drilling and nano technologies have been growing.

I, and a few others, will be going through all of the articles we can and blog about them. We will give a summary of the article and the field that it relates to. However the key will be what part or parts we made and the applications.

We are working on improving our Newsroom on our company website. It will have a page where all the articles in which we are cited will be listed, as well as direct links. That will be up and running very soon.

So for now, please peruse through the Google Scholar results. You can even add keywords to specify your search, such as aperture or orifice. And, as always, please visit our website for more about Lenox Laser's products and services.

New Breakthroughs in Metallic Glass and Laser Glass Drilling

In Live Science, there is a new article entitled "Bizarre Properties of Glass Revealed". It is about the new “breakthrough discovery in the bizarre properties of glass, which behaves at times like both a solid and a liquid.” The article can be found at http://www.livescience.com/technology/080623-glass-wings.html

Royall said, “knowing the structure formed by atoms as a glass cools represents a major breakthrough in the understanding of meta-stable materials and will allow further development of new strong yet light materials called metallic glasses. This stuff is generally shiny black in color, not transparent, due to having a lot of free electrons (think of mercury in an old thermometer).”

Lenox Laser, Inc. has also been a pioneer in developing advancements in glass processing. Our engineers were some of the first to successfully drill microholes in different types of glass accurately. Lenox Laser will also be a pioneer in the new field of metallic glasses that are currently being developed. These new glass types, mixed with exotic metals and materials, can revolutionize the optical, medical, biotechnology, space, semiconductor processing and scientific fields. Lenox Laser will be at the forefront of drilling the smallest microholes, apertures, orifices and arrays into these materials without the known risks of glass.

Lenox Laser is the premier microhole, aperture, and orifice glass driller in the industry. Our engineers can produce an aperture/orifice down to 5 microns. We mainly process the industry standard borosilicate glass, including the popular D263, but we have also processed quartz/fused silica, Pyrex variations, and soda-lime glasses. We specialize in drilling medical syringes, ampules, and vials for sophisticated leak detection systems, as well as drilling complex custom arrays in a variety of glass substrates. In addition, we have a complete line of standard glass products. Our list of customers includes many of the most recognizable names in the world, including government, university and private sector clients.

Lenox Laser Helps Uncover Archimedes Palimpsest.

Intensive efforts are underway to uncover centuries-old hidden writings of Greek mathematician Archimedes. Researches at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) are utilizing advanced X-ray technology to uncover writings of Archimedes once completely unknown. Discovered in 1906 by then-Professor J.L. Heiberg of the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, the hidden text appeared within historical monastic prayer documents. The ancient practice of washing text away to make reuse material is called "Palimpsesting".

The Archimedes Palimpsest writings lingered unseen for centuries, seemingly purged from the documents forever, until Professor Heiburg began to review small scrawls beneath the visible text. At SLAC, a revolutionary modern analysis of the writing medium has been made - revealing they do contain historically important information left behind by Archimedes, Hidden from the naked eye.

When confronted with an engineering challenge involving their Synchrotron X-Ray source, SLAC issued a request to Lenox Laser to produce microscopic laser-drilled holes in thin Tungsten film. These small apertures would prove critical to the team's success in uncovering the Palimpsest's "hidden treasure".

Using a new X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) technique, the team at SLAC, along with other collaborations, revealed writings involving mathematics and science once hidden for more than 1000 years. Conservation scientists are referencing this experiment to encourage similar new endeavors. Could many more documents in historical collections today hold hidden texts currently unknown? Time and Technology will tell.

The SLAC experiment has proven successful, and the story was featured on several prominent news and documentary programs. The Archimedes Palimpsest rests at the Walter's Art Gallery in Baltimore, MD - continuously monitored by preservation professionals, and studied regularly by scholars from around the world.