Rigaku acquires Raman products

Rigaku Americas Corporation has acquired the handheld Raman technology and product lines from BaySpec, and the concurrent formation of a new division, Rigaku Raman Technologies, for R&D, engineering, production, marketing and distribution.

Rigaku's handheld Raman instruments combine patented optics and proven spectral analysis techniques with Telecom-developed optical components, providing customers with fast, economical, easy-to-use, handheld chemical identification and composition analysers for explosives detection, including improvised explosive device (IED) detection; narcotics and other controlled substances detection and identification; counterfeit drug detection, food contaminant detection; and detection and identification of many other sample types; for homeland security; pharmaceutical, cosmetics, food, wine, beer and agricultural feed quality assurance and quality control; medical diagnostics; petrochemical exploration and process control; forensics; archeometry; and many other applications.

Led by analytical technology entrepreneur Hal Grodzins, as President and CEO, the new company will be co-located in San Jose, California and The Woodlands, Texas.

Initial offerings will comprise the FirstGuard and Xantus product ranges, covering sample excitation wavelengths of 532, 785 and 1064 nm.