Brooks Instrument Blog

I’m personally very excited to present to everyone our brand new Brooks Instrument product guide. Updated with all of our latest and greatest products like the GF40/80 mass flow meter / mass flow controller, XacTorr vacuum capacitance manometer, SolidSense II pressure transducer/transmitter, pressure gauges, LF200 ultrasonic liquid flow controller, and more. I won’t bore you with a long blog post about this product guide, just download it and check it out instead!

The first attempts to replace the horse as the primary mode of transportation involved burning wood to create steam to drive a steam engine. If the new crop of biotechnology and renewable energy companies realize their dreams we will once again be fueling our transportation and even using chemicals created from wood cellulose and other plants. Genetic engineering which has been the catalyst in the revolution of drug and food development is now being used to tackle our need for renewable fuels. I had experience, while still a student in the late 1970s, on the potential of enzymes to breakdown cellulose into sugar the basic building block for chemicals. I even had dreams of creating a cellulose driven economy but with oil costing only $20/bbl, I soon realized it would be difficult to compete. The catalyst driving the current group of bio energy hopefuls is the need to find renewable fuels which are better for the environment. Three conversion technologies are actively being funded. Read more…

As a vendor exhibiting at Intersolar you get to see the show from a little different perspective than the average show visitor.  Through your interaction with numerous customers visiting your booth you start to get a sense of the mood of the attendees and the opportunities that exist in the solar industries.

My first observation is that I was glad Brooks Instrument participated in the Intersolar portion of the combined Semicon/Intersolar show.  From a facilities perspective, the two venues for the shows almost reflected the state of the two industries.  Intersolar is located in Moscone West, a new exhibit hall which features large windows that let in the sun and generates a positive atmosphere on the show floor.  The solar industry is the future and these facilities reflect that optimism.

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I am proud to be leading the Brooks team at the upcoming Intersolar North America in sunny, beautiful San Francisco.  I recently attended Intersolar in Munich and was impressed with how that show has grown to almost fill the huge new Messe in Munich.  The halls were crammed with people even on a hot day for Germany, the Thursday session.  Intersolar North America appears to be on the same growth trajectory.

Our decision at Brooks to participate in Intersolar NA is a reflection on how great the show was last year and the maturation of the photovoltaic industry.  For many of the photovoltaic suppliers, their business models have gone from product development, market acceptance to that of an on-going business that needs to increase productivity using existing capital and continually reduce costs.  This is the perfect environment for Brooks material handling products which have been proven in industrial and process industries for decades. Brooks prides itself on developing products that are designed for long term, stable operation which is what is required now for low cost photovoltaic production.

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