ION Science celebrates 25 years of gas sensing excellence

ION Science celebrates 25 – Ion Science is delighted to announce that we are celebrating 25 years in the chemical sensing and monitoring business.

We will be commemorating this remarkable milestone with a toast to our success and reflecting on how much the company has grown during that time.

Ion Science was founded on one key principle: a commitment to offering robust and reliable technology and first-class service delivery to our customers and distributors across the world. This guiding principle is as important today as when we first started up in 1989.

Where it all began

Our first standard products were Saga flow meters and GasCheck leak and refrigerant gas detectors. The flow meter was very popular, but our main focus at that time was bespoke industrial leak testing equipment. In the mid 1990s, we began to dedicate more time to standard products. The one that emerged directly from our research was a hydrogen permeation device, patented in 1996. Another, the world’s first truly field worthy and accurate photoionisation detection (PID) instrument, derived from our leak detection business and was patented in 1998.

The millennium

By the turn of the millennium, we knew that to ensure on-going product excellence for our customers we should focus on standard ranges and our high-performance PID technology was perfectly suited for this.

In 2000, we launched two new products. The ‘PhoCheck 5000EX’ was our first PID instrument, designed to detect volatile organic compounds down to ppb levels and Hydrosteel, which continues to be the world’s premium hydrogen flux monitor used primarily in control of corrosion in petrochemical streams.

PID sensor technology

Responding to our growing experience of worldwide PID application, we took out a worldwide patent on our advanced PID Fence Electrode Technology in 2002, which enabled effective VOC measurement in contaminated, hot and humid atmospheres. We also launched TVOC, a fixed PID wall monitor.

The serviceability and robustness of the PID using the Fence Electrode was enhanced by the in-house manufacture of a miniaturised PID (MiniPID), as incorporated in the Tiger VOC detector series and our other PID instruments. The sensor itself was also sold independently and is now a major product line for the company, being used within a vast number of PID detectors across the globe.

Today we lead the way with our humidity resistant PID technology, proven to be the best performing against competing instruments when operating in humid and contaminated environments providing the most stable, repeatable readings.

Industry focus

In 2007, the company acquired MVI, a mercury vapour detector. This technology is ideally suited to chemical and petrochemical applications, which are also the most significant market sectors for many of our other products. As a result, we have made these areas of particular focus for innovation by designing PID instruments for the petrochemical industry, such as the Tiger Select handheld screening device, and CubTAC personal PID monitor for the detection of total aromatic compounds (TACs), including benzene.

The environmental industry also remains fundamental to our focus and success for our product range, as does the emerging market for IAQ monitoring with the recent release of the Corvus continuous and wireless, low level VOC monitor.

The future

Today, Ion Science is a global leader in PID science and the world’s largest manufacturer of this advanced sensor technology. This is proven by the global success of our revolutionary handheld Tiger VOC detector, and latest Cub personal PID monitor for the rapid, accurate detection of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs).

Looking to the future, our aim is to maintain and capitalise on our global technological lead, continuing to deliver robust and reliable gas sensing technology within the industries we serve to end users across the world.