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Article Excerpt
A traditionally significant area for gas sensors and detection instruments has been the industrial safety and confined space arena, where regulatory requirements (e.g., OSHA regulations in the U.S.) propel the need for gas detection instruments to monitor and help ensure the safety of workers and facilities. While the safety arena is mature, savvy companies have carved out significant growth in this market by offering lower-priced portable gas detection instruments for this segment.
The industrial safety market is demanding that gas detection instruments increasingly be able to more cost-effectively yet reliably monitor a broad array of gases, such as hydrogen sulfide, oxygen, carbon monoxide, combustibles (e.g., butane, methane, ammonia. The miniaturization of photoionization detectors (pids) has enabled the detection of a broad range of VOCs at low ppm levels, allowing expansion into the industrial hygiene market. Moreover, in certain industrial applications (such as off-shore oil platforms) wireless gas sensing technology is finding increased opportunities to more conveniently and efficiently ensure worker safety.
Furthermore, the increasingly vital need for protection against the threat of chemical warfare and possible terrorist attacks is driving new and expanding market opportunities for gas sensors and gas detection instruments beyond the traditional, bedrock industrial safety market. The keen opportunities being generated in the burgeoning homeland defense market include determining vapors associated with explosives, nerve agents, or toxic industrial chemicals; detecting illicit drugs; and monitoring gases and VOCs (volatile organic compounds) and hazardous materials in an environment or building to protect first responders against dangerous, toxic chemicals/vapors or explosives.
RAE Systems, Inc. (Sunnyvale, CA, 408-585-3534/877-723-2878)(OTC BB: RAEE.OB)(www.raesystems.com)--which was founded in 1991 by Robert I. Chen and Peter Hsi, and became publicly traded in 2002-has been successfully capitalizing on the opportunities in both the worker safety and homeland defense areas for value-added, rapidly-deployable gas detection instruments that use a combination of gas sensing technologies to provide a comprehensive solution for detecting multiple gases of interest. The company's strategy is to offer full-featured products designed to address market needs (such as the ability to sense multiple gases of interest), as opposed to strictly focusing on lower-priced products.
RAE Systems' products include readily deployable, portable, wireless, or fixed atmospheric monitors; photoionization detectors; disposable gas monitors; radiation detectors; gas detection tubes; and sampling pumps. The company provides single and multiple atmospheric monitors. In addition to providing photoionization detectors, radiation detectors, and single-gas detectors, RAE offers gas detection instruments that utilize a combination of gas sensing technologies. The gas sensing technologies used in RAE's multi-gas instruments include photoionization, electrochemical, catalytic bead, and NDIR (non-dispersive infrared). RAE makes its own PIDs, catalytic bead, and NDIR sensors, and the company both makes and buys electrochemical sensors.
RAE Systems products are used to detect and measure a variety of dangerous atmospheric contaminants and conditions, such as gamma rays, neutrons, combustible gas and vapor accumulations, oxygen deficiencies, and toxic gases such as carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide, carbon dioxide, and other...
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