Edinburgh Instruments celebrates 40 years in business

The company, founded by Chief Scientific Officer Professor Desmond Smith OBE FRS, was the first commercial spin-out from Heriot-Watt in 1971, and the first private company on Britain's first University Research Park based in Riccarton, on the outskirts of Edinburgh.

More recently Edinburgh Instruments, which employs around 70 people, has restructured to focus on two clearly defined business areas - photonics and sensors - and this, according to managing director Alan Faichney, sets the benchmark to help further accelerate international growth for the company's product portfolio.

Faichney states: "The photonics side of the business now accounts for just over 80 per cent of our sales, with the BRIC nations accounting for the lion's share of our exports, although we are seeing excellent sales coming through from Eastern Europe and Asia as well. We have had strong export sales into China for some considerable time but, interestingly, Russia is a good example of where we have seen a surge of sales activity.

"There are so many geographically remote and specialist universities focusing on particular types of research that require our products and expertise, so it opens up an entirely new opportunity for our next generation of scientific instrumentation and laser products."

Gas sensors

In addition to its range of photonic laser and spectroscopy instrumentation, Edinburgh Instruments' R&D capability continues to innovate new gas sensor products. The company's Sensor Division manufactures high-quality, reliable sensors and monitoring systems for gases such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide and methane. This supports a wide range of market segments and applications, ranging from process control and gas delivery to personal safety, horticulture and landfill gas measurement.

Faichney comments: "Like our photonics, division, we are forging ahead with strong export sales on our sensors side. Sales into the United States and Canada remain particularly strong and we are seeing excellent growth in other countries too. We expect this to continue as we bring new gas sensor products onto the market for a wide and diversified range of market applications."

Edinburgh Instruments' founder, Professor Desmond Smith, recently received the Royal Society of Edinburgh Royal Medal from HRH the Duke of Edinburgh in recognition for his work in physics research, especially in optoelectronics, spectroscopy and laser technology, and its application in industry and research technology.