Nanjing Normal University Late last year, Senior Field Service & Installation Engineer Dave Harris travelled to China to for a CryoPrep installation and to train our agent for future installations. Chao He from agent Lab Tech, is supporting researchers Meiqi Chen,...

Welcoming 2025! Welcome to 2025. For Sercon, the year promises much, building on the successes of a very busy year in 2024. Now established in our new building, specifically refurbished to meet the needs of our growing business, we have the space to not just meet...

Thank you for 2004 - and Merry Christmas! We would like to mark the end of December and the approaching end of 2024 with a big “Thank You” to all those we have had the pleasure of working with this year; we look forward to continuing to support you and many more in...

Secrets Unveiled by Notre Dame Fire Sometimes opportunities to learn arise from even the biggest of disasters. The 2019 Notre-Dame de Paris fire is a classic example, opening a unique window on the past. Researchers from France, Finland and Canada have been unlocking...

FDA approval for Sercon’s ABCA2 We’ve just received our renewal of FDA approval for Sercon’s ABCA2 automated breath 13CO2 analyser. MD Mark O’Connor is proud of the achievement: “The ABCA2 is the only FDA approved, high performance IRMS instrument with large sample...

Honey Adulteration New EU Rules Since the end of November, third party countries exporting honey and other apiculture products to the EU for human consumption must be registered, and consignments may only enter the bloc if they are despatched from, obtained and/or...

Guidance on Isotopic Testing The US Customs Border Protection (CBP) last week released updated guidance on isotopic testing, as it looks for more efficient mechanisms for determining the origin of cotton within U.S. textile imports. The guidance states: “… CBP is...

University of Houston Our first attempt to install a uCarbs system with verSA and Heated Block for Carbonates analysis at the University of Houston in Texas had to be abandoned earlier this year because of Hurricane Beryl. Engineer James Hanson led the successful...

University of Ghent Installation Service & Installation Engineer Henry Cooke recently installed a new Sercon HTEA instrument at the University of Ghent, Belgium. Our client, Katja Van Nieuland, from the Isotope Bioscience Laboratory, Department of Green Chemistry,...

University of California, Davis All Sercon equipment is upgradable, and on a recent visit to the University of California Davis (UC Davis) Stable Isotope Facility, Engineer James Hanson ran two electronics upgrades on some Hydra 20-20 systems, including a software...

Supporting Young People This one is for our local contacts in and around Cheshire and the North East of England. Sercon has long supported the development of young people, with training and apprenticeships, and most recently our engagement with Crewe UTC T-level...

Argentina Installation Visit Systems Engineer James Hanson recently worked with Jenck S.A. Instrumental, Sercon’s agent  in Argentina, to complete an installation at Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata in Argentina. Once the installations – an HTEA, a CryoPrep, an...

Successful Crewe UTC Visit As part of the relationship we are building with Crewe University Technical College (UTC), Sercon hosted a visit by 23 T-Level students from Crewe UTC last week, and is planning to repeat the exercise for the remaining students in the same...

Looking forward to Crewe UTC visit Looking forward to welcoming students from Crewe University Technical College (UTC) for an open day at our new premises in the town tomorrow - we've got some hands on experience lined up for them and plenty of the team on hand to...

𝛅13C in Hair (dog and human) and Fingernail Keratin by LA IRMS You’ll find plenty of application notes on our new website, including this brand new one: 𝛅13C in Hair (dog and human) and Fingernail Keratin by LA IRMS Measuring 𝛅13C in hair and fingernail keratin helps...

New Website We are delighted to have launched our new website this week - and welcome! Our new website, launched this week, is a reflection of the many developments that have taken place across the business in the last 12 months. Upgraded content, including a larger...

University of Aarhus Service Engineer Dave Harris spent a week in early September at the University of Aarhus in Denmark, working in the Department of Biology, on a training visit with Gunnar Rasmussen, Laboratory Technician, who supports Organic-Geological/Biology...

Training for International Agents Sercon’s global presence (see map below) is supported by our carefully selected network of agents, who – together with our team of service engineers – work with our non-UK customers to provide the latest advice, products and...

The School of Chemistry at Universidad Nacional De San Agustin (UNSA) in Arequipa, Peru hosted a five day installation, service and maintenance visit from Sercon Service Engineer Dave Harris in July. The UNSA team, led by Prof. Juan Lopa and Gina Daza, undertake...

Systems Engineer Rob Kameny undertook a routine service visit to the Marine Biology department at the Centre Scientifique de Monaco last month. The lab, led by Dr Renaud Grover, runs a Sercon Integra2, and their work aims to understand the effects of climatic...

Most of Sercon's office teams spent part of last week undertaking the move from Crewe Trade Park to Europa House - here's the documentary evidence!

The Bundesinstitut für Risikobewertung, BfR, (the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment) in Berlin recently welcomed Sercon’s systems engineer Rob Kameny, who visited to conduct an annual service on their mass spectrometers. Stephanie Panitz runs several...

ISO Audit, September 2024 Installation and Service Manager Simon Moseley is pleased to report a very boring ISO Audit visit this month! Not that managing quality is boring, obviously, but a quiet visit is always the intention as it means we are, largely, speaking,...

This photo was taken on a recent annual service and maintenance visit undertaken by one of our Service and Installation Engineers Henry Cooke, to SYNLAB Belgium. The ABCA2 and VerSA instruments run by Valery Daubie are operated in the Molecular Biology department,...

As we prepare to move into Sercon's new HQ, Europa House in Crewe, have a look at this quick video tour!

University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana Service engineer Dave Harris recently found himself at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. This time, his work was at the Center for Environmental Science and Technology, where he worked with Stable...

Diagnostic Centre, Bled In a recent two day visit to the medical testing operation run by Diagnostic Centre, Bled, based in Novo Mesto, Slovenia, Service and Installation Engineer Henry Cooke worked on ABCA2 and VerSA instruments, which are under the management of...

Canadian Customer Training Visit Lecturer and Head of the Marine Chemistry and Mass Spectrometry Laboratory at the Institute of Marine Sciences at the University of Quebec at Rimouski, Mathieu Babin, has been spending last week and this with the engineering team at...

Lab Manager at Sercon Analytical, Lynsey Wheeldon, was always interested in science and nature as a child. Her career aspirations alternated between astronaut, palaeontologist, and vet! She finally settled on Biochemistry as a degree subject as it covered a broad...

Sercon Analytical Moves to Europa House In the very first stage of Sercon’s move into Europa House, the Sercon Analytical lab has taken up residence in the newly refurbished building that will soon become Sercon’s Head office. As a growing business with a busy...

Queen Mary University Service Engineer Dave Harris visited the School of Biological & Behavioural Sciences at Queen Mary University, London recently to service an Integra2 (N&C) and an HS2022 & ANCA/GSL for Ian Sanders, Organismal Analytical Laboratories...

Medical Research at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto The Medical Research team at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, is studying amino acid absorption in humans in famine conditions, using Sercon’s 20-20, Aqua and CETAC (being used for CO2 breath...

New Building Update Sercon got the keys for its future premises at the end of April, and the refurbishment and reconfiguration for the company’s future needs is very nearly complete! Once occupied by Sercon’s forerunner Europa Scientific, Europa House future-proofs...

Oslo Service Visit For his first service visit in Scandinavia, Service and Installation Engineer Henry Cooke visited the Unger-Vetlesens Research Institute at Lovisenberg Diakonale Sykenhus in Olso. Our customer, Gunn Helen Malmstrøm, is engaged with biomedical...

Not a Solo Sport! Before heading out to Romania for TRACE2024, Sercon’s Garry Armstrong was ‘encouraged’ to compete in England’s Strongest Master competition by our sponsored amateur strongman Matty Franklin. Matty was on the support crew for the competition, held at...

Katja T. Rinne-Garmston presenting at TRACE 2024 on her paper “Drivers of intra-seasonal ?13 C signal in tree-rings of Pinus sylvestris as indicated by compound-specific and laser ablation isotope analysis” (see link to paper below) - research undertaken on Sercon...

Maximising instrument uptime with Sercon Service Unplanned instrument downtime is a challenge in today’s busy labs with project deadlines to be met.  Regular instrument maintenance is crucial in minimising instrument breakdowns and foreseeing future issues before they...

Isomed Portugal PDZ Europa Upgrade Isomed’s PDZ Europa ABCA, which has been running for around 20 years, needed new system electronics as well as a software upgrade and following discussions with our team, systems engineer James Hanson was tasked with the project in...

ANU Canberra Installation Professor Stewart Fallon from world-leading Australian National University’s Research School of Earth Sciences has been involved with Sercon equipment for quite a few years, working on N & C samples on an HS2022 and GSL (a combustion EA...

Upgrading mid 1990’s EA-IRMS It’s always useful to understand how customers view what you see as core benefits and strong customer service. We already knew that our customers appreciate the backwards compatibility of all Sercon instruments but wanted to get a more...

Arnolds Amateur Strongman Championships 2024 We caught up with our sponsored amateur strongman athlete Matty Franklin as he returned from his first international competition in the US, the Arnold Amateur Strongman Championships. In summary, wow, what an amazing...

Sercon was starting to outgrow its current site in Crewe Trading Park even before the addition of the samples lab that operates as Sercon Analytical. And as demand for our IRMS instruments and consumables from academic and commercial sectors around the world continues...

Further Service Team Expansion We recently introduced Henry Cook as a new member of our service team. Another recent addition is Aoife Davies Gardner, who has already been with the business for 2 months. With a degree in Forensic Science and a masters in Analytical...

Expanding Sercon’s Service Team As demand for Sercon’s IRMS products and services continues to grow, the Service team has also grown to ensure the business can continue to provide first rate maintenance, service and upgrades to its customers worldwide. Since joining...

Cerba Instrument Relocation Systems Engineer James Hanson recently supported a customer with the relocation and reinstallation of their entire suite of ABCA systems to a new lab space to carry out their very high demand for 13C breath analysis. Cerba’s move to its new...

Sercon Analytical Up To Speed in Just 4 Days! It didn’t take long for the team at recently formed Sercon Analytical to get the new lab set up and fully functional, from scratch and running test batches in just four days! In the new operation’s opening week the first...

Servicing a 34 year old IRMS in Helsinki Tvarminne Zoological Station (University of Helsinki) is a remote research station near Hanko, Finland, running various marine and costal N&C analysis using a very old (upgraded) IRMS called a Tracer Mass and GSL system....

Introducing Sercon Analytical Following the members voluntary liquidation of the well-respected service lab Iso-Analytical an opportunity to continue the support of the Isotope community and build on over 20 years of Isotope analysis experience has been realised with...

Good Luck Matty As the big competition approaches, we caught up with our sponsored amateur strongman athlete Matty Franklin as he makes his final preparations for his first international competition in the US, the Arnold Amateur Strongman Championships. Training...

We are delighted to announce that we have a new International Sales Agent covering the USA. USA Analytical Technologies, Inc. is a California based company that provides elemental analysis consumables, products and technical support to the plant & soil science...

Systems Engineer James Hanson has been back to South America to take care of Stage One of a major instrument move in Arequipa, Peru. The Universidad Nacional de San Agustin de Arequipa (UNSA) is relocating its Stable Isotopes Laboratory, and James spent a week testing...

As we all approach the start of the scientific community’s conference and events season, Sercon’s Su Rotheram is working on all the behind the scenes preparation needed for Director Garry Armstrong and Business Development Manager Mark Gibson to make the most of every...

Where in the World has Sercon Spent January? Our service, maintenance, upgrade and installation teams do a lot of travelling to customer sites around the world - as do our business development people! Use this interactive map to see what we've been doing - and...

Never a business to shirk the heavy lifting, Sercon are helping an amateur strongman athlete with some sponsorship this season particularly to help him with his first international competition in the US, the Arnold Amateur Strongman Championships. In December, as part...

Ohio State University Installation The Lal Carbon Center at Ohio State University plan to use their new Sercon INTEGRA2, recently installed by Senior Engineer Dave Harris, for agricultural testing purposes. Mainly looking at 15N and 13C data via combustion but also,...

Five Ways Backward Compatibility Helps the Environment We talked about backward compatibility earlier in the week, together with its research and cost benefits. But there’s more – here’s at least five good reasons why backward compatibility in both software and...

Science is all about moving forwards, so why does backwards compatibility really matter to the scientific community? Backward Compatibility and Why it Matters As researchers continue to push the barriers of known science, Sercon continues to incrementally develop...

Rob Kameny Profile Czech national and Systems Engineer Robert Kameny adeptly oversees the needs of Sercon's European clientele from our operational hub in Prague, serving as the linchpin for Sercon Europe. His story and career path are more unusual than many. Rob left...

FDA approval for Sercon’s ABCA2 We’ve just received our renewal of FDA approval for Sercon’s ABCA2 automated breath 13CO2 analyser. MD Mark O’Connor is proud of the achievement: “The ABCA2 is the only FDA approved, high performance IRMS instrument with large sample...

IRMS Installation Ankara University Earth Science Applications and Research Centre (YEBIM) in Ankara University in Turkey has a brand new HS2022 IRMS and PyroEarth system, installed by Sercon Europe’s Systems Engineer Rob Kameny, alongside the Lita Analitik team – our...

2024 Outlook Happy New Year! It’s that time of year where everyone gets out their crystal balls and speculates about what’s going to happen in the rest of this brand new year. That’s not the Sercon way. We are all about the science (specifically the isotopes) and long...

Thank You for 2023! We would like to mark the end of December and the approaching end of 2023 with a big “Thank You” to all those we have had the pleasure of working with this year; we look forward to continuing to support you and many more in 2024. Tomorrow (Thursday...

Sercon History - Up to Date! To bring the company’s history up to date from 2004 where we left off last month, three years after Sercon was conceived in 2001 as a support company for the Europa community: In a busy 2005 we started our own development programme,...

Engineering – particularly on the electrical side – has always been one of Installation and Service Manager Simon Moseley’s interests. He initially studied engineering at college before joining Sercon on an Advanced Apprenticeship in engineering and manufacturing. A...

The second Leg of Systems Engineer James Hanson’s Chilean roadtrip took him to the Universidad Andrés Bello (UNAB), a private University in Viña del Mar. The visit was for the installation of a multi-prep suite of Sercon instruments in the Isotope Analysis Lab to...

Tracing the cotton supply chain is vital for fashion brands whose sustainability credentials are part of their social impact programmes. Sercon is proud to work with Oritain, leaders in using forensic science to combat supply chain fraud to help brands like Primark...

Chile Road Trip – the Copper Mining Industry There is no better illustration of Sercon’s global capabilities than the Chilean roadtrip recently undertaken by System Engineer James Hanson. Over a four week period, James covered over two thousand miles along the west...

About Garry Armstrong If you know Sercon Instruments, you’ll know Garry Armstrong – but how much do you really know about this company director? What you learn here may surprise you in places! Garry came to Sercon from an engineering and service background, but that...

Service engineer Dave Harris  visited the Interfind laboratory to service a Sercon Integra2 combined benchtop integrated EA-IRMS in Thessaloniki last week. Melinda Ltd combines has combined traditional beekeeping techniques with the most state-of-the-art facilities in...

Service Engineer James Hanson has just been to Southampton General Hospital and performed a successful dual turbo upgrade and full service on a Sercon ABCA system being used by Dr Paul Afolabi in the Mass Spectrometry Lab. Dr Paul Afolabi will use the Sercon ABCA...

Last month, we went back to the 70’s and 80’s to the very roots of modern day Sercon, today, we’re moving on to the 90’s and early noughties. In 1990 Europa Scientific, forerunners of Sercon, were awarded their first Queen’s Award For Export Excellence and moved into...

Service PM Dave Harris is at the AWI institute Alfred Wenger Institute in Potsdam this week, where he has been servicing a Sercon HS2022 IRMS for Andreas Marent. The HS2022 is the most sensitive small radius IRMS in the world. Combining superior analytical performance...

The 1970’s and 80’s were a time of exponential growth in the application of mass spectrometry, and gas stable isotope ratio analysis was one of the leaders, with branches in geological, archeological, environmental, medical and forensic research. At the time, a major...

Successful Quality Audit Quality audits can sound ever so slightly dull, but when you are manufacturing high value and high precision scientific instruments, compliance to quality standards is a critical requirement and never just a tick box exercise. “The audit...

Introducing Mark Gibson We’re delighted to announce that @Mark Gibson has joined Sercon Group as Business Development Manager. “Sercon is at an exciting time in its development, with many opportunities both in the UK and worldwide,” commented Director Garry Armstrong....