Increased activities in application support

- Surface Science Contract Lab in U.S. to Better Serve the Needs of Growing Customer Base

- Surface science specialist adds to the strength of our rapidly expanding application laboratory in Hamburg, Germany

In order to better serve KRUSS customers' contract laboratory needs, KRUSS has a strategic alliance with company Augustine Scientific, Ohio, Dr. Christopher Rulison. Augustine Scientific exclusively uses KRUSS instrumentation for all surface tension and contact angle measurements. Dr. Rulison will operate in close partnership with KRUSS’ International facilities to provide the best data analysis for our customers as a precursor to, or in lieu of, instrumentation purchases.

To support the advancement of the field of surface science, Christine Bilke-Krause joined KRUSS in June 2002 as the head of our Hamburg, Germany application development laboratory. Mrs. Bilke-Krause brought to KRUSS more than a decade of surface science expertise gained while studying at Humboldt University of Berlin and the University of Leipzig as well as several years of corporate surface science experience.

In addition KRUSS continues to operate sales demonstration and application development laboratories in Charlotte, NC, and Palaiseau, France.

Adhesion Energy and Interfacial Tension – Two Related Coating/Substrate Interfacial Properties. Which is More Important for Your Application, and Why ?
The major reason for determining surface energies and surface polarities for coatings (including adhesives and inks) and substrates is as a basis for modification of either one or the other (or possibly both) to improve either wetting, spreading, or adhesion. Two important interfacial parameters are typically gained from such work: the physiochemical adhesion energy between the coating and the substrate, and the interfacial tension that remains, once the substrate/coating interface is formed. The former property (adhesion energy) has much to do with how favorable the formation of such a substrate/coating "bond" is. The later property (interfacial tension) has to do with how difficult such a bond will be to break, once it is formed.

Assessing the cleaning ability of aqueous surfactant solutions on soiled hydrophobic textile fabrics by using contact angle and surface tension measurements
This article presents a practical way of making an estimation based on surface tension measurements between dirt components and the cleaning solution as well as on contact angle measurements made on hydrophobic textiles; this makes it possible to predict the cleaning effect.

Contact Angle Measurements in Deepenings
Contact angle measurements in holes, bowls and wells were up to now not possible due to their specific geometry. With the new TDA10A, now the wetting properties of these samples can be characterised precisely. By using a new arrangement of the measurement system and the piezo dosing system these new applications were made possible.

Contact angle measurements in the wells of micro-titer plates can be performed as well as measurements on the concave side of contact lenses or on small areas of micro-mechanical devices.

We are happy to inform that Mr. Alexander Kozlov is our authorised Sales Manager for all Analytik Jena Products in the Russian Federation and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). He is located in our company office in Moscow, contact:

Analytik Jena Moscow
Starosadskij Pereulok 7
Moscow 101000
Russia

Tel./Fax: +7-09 59 33 55 76
e-mail: info@analytik-jena.ru

Spectro has developed an energy-dispersive XRF system designed to meet soon-to-be-introduced EU directives for determining heavy metal content for " end of life vehicles (ELV)" and "waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE). According to Spectro, its XEPOS instrument has "proven to be the ideal instrument for determining cadmium, lead, mercury and chromium at the limits set for ELV and the still-to-be-set limits for WEEE. Proprietary polarisation technology provides a detection limit of 8ppm, an "improvement by a factor of four-to-seven versus conventional ED-XRF"

Spectro has reduced the staff from 550 to 420 people
The organization is quite similar to ours: regional offices for Asia (Hong-Kong and Beijing), NAFTA (Fitchburgh, MA), Europe (Kleve), DACH & Benelux (Kleve) and Rest Of the World (Kleve). In the regional centers specialists are located to assists the sales-force, a similar set-up for after-sales is not in place yet.

The Bruker quarterly report published under news (11/14/02) on the Bruker AXS stock report page of the Nasdaq site makes interesting reading including:
S4 Pioneer sales in the third quarter were $1.6M ie around 12-13 units.
They made a loss.
Headcount is reduced by 5%
UK manufacturing (S2) will move to Germany.

The Italian subsidiary of Spectro Analytical Instruments GmbH&Co has appointed six new local sales agencies. Among the appointments, Assing SpA (Monerotondo), an established distributor of electron microscopy and X-ray instrumentation, is now the exclusive agent for Spectro’s XRF products across most of Italy. Spectro Italia’s general manager, Stefano Pintossi, said that the changes brought the company "closer to our existing customer base of more than 850 installed units in Italy" and effectively doubled the commercial and technical capabilities of Spectro in the region.

THIRD QUARTER 2002
Net sales for the three months ended September 30, 2002 increased 27% to $26.9 million, compared to $21.2 million for the three months ended September 30, 2001. The net sales increase was driven by continued strong demand for our systems, particularly in the materials research segment. Excluding favorable currency effects, third quarter 2002 net sales increased 19% year-over-year.
In the third quarter of 2002, Bruker AXS took a previously announced restructuring charge of $1.8 million before taxes, primarily for its workforce and cost reduction program. Net income for the third quarter 2002, excluding the after-tax effects of the restructuring charge, was $0.3 million, or $0.01 per diluted share, compared to a net loss of $(0.3) million, or $(0.01) per diluted share, for the third quarter 2001. On a GAAP basis, the net loss for the third quarter 2002 was $(0.8) million or $(0.01) per diluted share.
Cash and cash equivalents totaled $49.1 million as of September 30, 2002.
NINE MONTHS ENDED SEPTEMBER 30, 2002
Net sales for the nine months ended September 30, 2002 increased 24% to $74.7 million, compared to $60.2 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2001. Excluding favorable currency effects, year-to-date net sales increased 21% compared to the prior year.