Earlier this week, Headwall successfully completed its re-certification audit for ISO 9001:2008. We see it as a proud milestone rather than a passing fad, because Quality does matter to us! The audit was conducted by NQA, a prestigious ISO audit and surveillance company.Quality is a necessary and functionality pervasive attribute when you are an analytical instrument manufacturer such as Headwall. As our business relies on repeat OEM business or high volume spectrometer manufacture, customers expect and demand a very predictable supply chain partner.
For Headwall’s core business of designing and manufacturing advanced spectral instrumentation that will be deployed at the heart of mission-critical applications, the inherent corporate ability to understand and quantify measures of performance is a unique differentiator.
Surely, developing and maintaining an ISO quality system requires organizational focus and discipline and some may be inclined to believe it is more expensive to do so … but that is short-sighted. The costs of not implementing a product quality system are pervasively felt with product returns, poor and unresponsive technical support, low manufacturing yields, and most importantly, dissatisfied customers.
Headwall sells into a very diverse and critical set of applications where product reliability is key – NIR in-line process analysis, handheld color measurement devices, raw material screening for pharmaceuticals, spectral imaging of food and agriculture products, or airborne hyperspectral sensors – and all of these environments demand traceability of product and verifiable work instructions to support product quality standards.
Headwall will proudly post our ISO9001:2008 certificate but the real benefit is being able to deliver on our promises to customers and then being able to prove it to them.
Wrap-up from the BiOS and Photonics West conferences in San Francisco...
After a busy week discussing spectrometers, diffraction gratings, and hyperspectral imagers at the conferences, the Headwall Photonics’ application engineering team had some free time to take hyperspectral scans of a few of San Francisco’s most famous landmarks.
Below is a hyperspectral image of the Golden Gate Bridge. The hyperspectral image was taken with Headwall’s Hyperspec RECON imaging sensor, the industry’s first handheld hyperspectral sensor specifically designed for ground-based, military & defense applications. You can see that the spectra of the anti-rust paint on the bridge supports was also found on the metal window supports of the building in the foreground.
The striking thing about this image is that the bridge is estimated to be greater than 2 miles away from the sensor.
The Hyperspec RECON sensor was a PRISM Award finalist at the Photonics West Conference. Reconnaissance soldiers will use this rugged, handheld sensor for improved ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance) missions. In deployment mode, the DoD will load mission-specific target signatures into the hyperspectral sensor to detect “objects of interest” within the field of view.
For more information about Hyperspec RECON, click here.
Headwall Photonics will be at THREE important industry conventions later this month...one on the east coast and one on the west coast! Wherever you'll be, pay us a visit!
The first two are the SPIE-sponsored companion events BiOS and Photonics West. They're running consecutively at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco. BiOS occurs Saturday and Sunday, January 21-22. Headwall Photonics will be in Booth 8903.
Photonics West occurs Tuesday through Thursday, January 24-26. We’ll be in Booth 903 for that show. We’ll have the latest in hyperspectral imaging solutions on display and operational, including the brand-new Hyperspec Recon. This portable, ruggedized hyperspectral imager is up for an award during Photonics West! It is one of three products nominated for the prestigious 2011 PRISM Award! If you’ll be going to either BiOS or Photonics West (or both!), we’d love to see you!
Nearly 3000 miles to the east and during the same week, Headwall Photonics will be exhibiting at the IFPAC Show in Baltimore. It’s the 26th International Forum and Exhibition on Process Analytical Technology, and Headwall’s hyperspectral imaging solutions are producing remarkable results in the food-processing, pharmaceutical, and chemical markets. Our booth at IFPAC is 212, and we look forward to seeing you there!
Hyperspectral imaging is reaching into areas that are more mainstream than ever. You can actually 'see what you've been missing' with hyperspectral imaging systems, meaning that they can help solve some of the biggest challenges we face. Food can be made safer, surveillance can be more precise, health-care problems can be detected sooner, and forensic science can reach new levels of precision. Outstanding spectral and spatial resolution is the key, and that’s a function of having high-efficiency, all-original diffraction gratings. Every system built by Headwall Photonics is based upon this core technology.
So how mainstream is mainstream? Hyperspectral imaging systems are being deployed in processing facilities where speed, product quality & safety, and cost-optimization are key drivers. Think of food-processing facilities for specialty crops, other fruits and vegetables, poultry, and fish. All need ways of determining good from bad and pass from fail. Histamine levels in fish and contamination in fruits and vegetables, for example, are all distinguishable with hyperspectral imaging. And since these red-flag conditions will be found early enough in the process, quality increases and cost decreases.
Other areas of need include health-care and pharmaceutical processing, forensic sciences, chemicals, mining, government surveillance/homeland security, and many more. The beauty of the technology is that it’s more affordable than ever, and easy to set up and use.
Headwall Photonics will be at the BiOS/Photonics West conferences in San Francisco this month (booth 8903 for BiOS and 903 for Photonics West). We’ll also be at the International Forum for Process Analytical Technology (IFPAC) in Baltimore January 23-25. We’ll be at Booth 212 there. Come visit us to learn more about how Hyperspectral Imaging can solve some of your toughest challenges!