Chromatographic columns developers

[courju]

I am looking for companies that develop new stationary phases in Switzerland and in France. It seems that very few companies are focused on development of new things and more only on selling the old type columns in this part of the world. Spectronex, LCC, or Labomatic look fairly small companies. You might know some other, thanks.

[Mark Tracy]

My observation of this business is that companies that sell only new column technology usually go broke. Companies that sell no new columns also go broke, but it takes longer. The survivors use the sales of old technology to finance the new. You will also find that LC is a mature field, and the customers are rather conservative, either by inclination or by regulation. They like their revolutions one step at a time.

Just to illustrate the point, Dionex has a line of HPLC columns. Our best seller by far is the 5µ C18 4.6x250mm column; every vendor sells one of these. We just developed two new stationary phases for separating explosives that outperform everything on the market. What is the first question people ask? "Is it EPA approved?"

[Uwe Neue]

Why are you looking for such places only in Switzerland and France? The major developers of new stationary phases have a world-wide distribution system with a core R&D located at the parent facility. You may contact me privately for more details at Uwe.Neue@prodigy.net.

[Kostas Petritis]

In general, I agree with Mark...

In your case, I would be curious of the reason that you are asking... are you trying to establish a co-elaboration due to a new idea, do you just need something specific for your application, do you just need to enrich your lab with columns that provide new selectivities or is it just from curiousity?