As the Fall LRIG vendor show approaches on 9/19/11 in Cambridge, MA once again at the Boston Marriott Cambridge, we look back at the past 8-9 years MéCour has participated in this interesting and ever changing one-day show. Notable changes have definitely been not only in scale-up in LH/HTS, but the endless and “never ceases to amaze me” applications the end-users require temperature control for but don’t know or simply can’t find a solution to assist them.

Nine years ago we fielded inquiries that required only 1 or 2 plates maintained at 37°C or occasionally 4°C. Times have changed dramatically. We haven’t sold a single or even a two-plate Thermal Block in several years. Customers opt for a minimum or 4, 6, 8 and more, combined with supporting Thermal Block units accommodating reagent and media bottles. The other noticeable change has been in the temperature range requested by the labs, which now spans from -90°C to + 300°C with the same well-to-well temperature uniformity, stability and reproducibility.

What’s always intriguing to us are the application specifications or what our systems will be used to control. Most recently these specifications have included thermal cycling of dental materials used to make teeth; keeping worms warm and giving an occasional shake or wake up call to view whatever they do; and providing a comfortable thermal surface while small lab animals are anesthitized and examined! There are countless more examples and interesting stories (no actual ducks were ever used in these applications)!

So MéCour continues to evolve and stick to its original premise - tell us what you want and really need, and we’ll do our best to provide you with the thermal control solution that best fits your application.

FYI, by popular demand, we may have these cute ducks as giveaways at future shows! We hope you stop by if you're attending and tell us if you have an "odd duck" application we can help you with.