 
CORPORATE HISTORY Block Engineering, a division of Spectra Optics, Inc., is a market leader in the development and manufacturing of state-of-the-art Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) field rated spectrometers, which are used for the remote and point detection and identification of chemical and biological agents. Since its founding in 1956, Block has served the needs of the Department of Defense (all services), the intelligence community, NASA (Surveyor, Gemini, Skylab), and commercial/industrial customers. Many technical contributions to state-of-the-art FTIR chemical detection equipment are credited to the company and its staff. The Block name, reputation and the performance of its instruments are well known. Block Engineering is the only operating division of Spectra Optics. Block's operations are currently located in Marlborough, Massachusetts, about one hour's drive west of Boston . PRODUCT OVERVIEW Historically, Block was an R&D company building specialized custom instruments under contracts primarily for the US government. While continuing to serve the R&D community, Block more recently has focused on developing and manufacturing a family of moderate cost, standardized spectrometer products. These products allow for the passive remote standoff detection and in-the-gas point detection and measurement of chemical and biological agents, and serve the following applications:
TECHNOLOGIES Block engineering has developed expertise in many technologies that are critical to the operation of these instruments. These include infrared optics, infrared detectors and associated coolers, lasers and laser reference systems, sophisticated bearings and servo systems, scanners, as well as a variety of electronic circuits to process, analyze and control the instrument and the optical information. PRODUCTS Block's primary products and related development efforts are described below: Off-the Shelf Products Model 100 The Model 100 is currently Block's best selling remote agent detection system. It is a reliable, compact, lightweight product that can be used in a variety of applications and environments. It sells for $125,000 - $165,000 in single unit quantities, with volume discounts available. Since its introduction, over 50 Model 100 units have been shipped. The Model 100 can be optimized to collect spectroradiometric data in either the 2.5 to 5.5 µm or the 7 to 14 µm spectral band (atmospheric windows). Appropriate cryogenic or thermoelectrically cooled detectors are available with specially selected and appropriate closed cycle coolers. Spectral resolutions are operator selectable from 2 cm-1 to 16 cm-1 with spectra acquisition rates ranging from 2 to over 70 per second. Block is one of the few manufacturers who quote system sensitivity performance. The appropriate metric for remote cloud detection is Noise Equivalent Spectral Radiance (NESR). Typical Model 100 NESR per scan is < 3 x 10-9 watts/(cm2cm-1Sr). This sensitivity provides for practical gas detection up to several kilometers depending on the gas concentrations and the temperature difference between the gas and the background. Additional technical specifications are available on our products page. A number of model 100's have been installed into the Predator unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), mobile chemical detection vans, and building protection systems. Block has a teaming agreement with Northrop Grumman to incorporate the model 100 into complete packaged integrated detection systems, incorporating Block's Model 100, software from a company called MESH (http://www.meshoxford.com) and various Northrop products. Northrop has the primary marketing, system design, and product integration responsibilities for these systems. The first system that has been developed is the Mobile Chemical Agent Detection system (MCAD). MCAD is the only operate-on-the-move standoff chemical agent detector currently available in the world. MCAD is a passive, standoff system that rapidly detects, locates, classifies and identifies chemical agent threats within a 5 kilometer range. It operates on vehicle-mounted, maritime, aircraft, and UAV platforms. Several complete MCAD systems have recently been tested at Dugway proving grounds with live chemical agents in chambers as well as simulant gases in the field and they have performed extremely well. Near Term Development Products This is an advanced FTIR spectrometer with very high sensitivity; ten times that of the Model 100. It was designed for the Soldier Biological and Chemical Command (SBCCOM) to remotely and passively detect some classes of biological warfare agents and very low levels of chemical agents. The first unit has been undergoing extensive field tests for the past year, and SBCCOM has published data indicating successful detection of biological clouds. Block is currently building an improved, more sensitive version that should be available by the end of 2003. Target price is $250,000. LCAS Point Detector Block has received a contract to develop an ultra-sensitive but low cost point detector to be placed in the air handling system of sensitive government and commercial buildings to detect sub lethal doses of toxic gasses and potentially biological agent clouds. It has a noise equivalent absorbance of 0.012 at 10um (for 1 scan or 77msec). The target price in quantities of 20 is less that $25,000. Block has just delivered the first prototype. An ultra sensitive version of this product could potentially be used to detect classes of biological agents simultaneously with chemical agents. Detector Array Products Block is also developing a number of products using detector arrays. It has developed a highly sensitive 1x9 detector array remote sensing spectrometer to enhance the revisit scanning time by a factor of 9. It is also under contract to develop a 3x3 highly sensitive array spectrometer to improve background elimination and to improve target aiming accuracy for small remote targets. Longer Term Development ChemPen/MEMS Microspectrometer Block has developed an initial design for a miniaturized (the size of a fountain pen and weighing under 4 ozs.), very low cost (under $1,000) FTIR absorption spectrometer (called ChemPen) fabricated using micro-electromechanical (MEMs) technology. (See paper delivered at Hunt Valley conference.) ChemPen would constitute a major leap forward in the cost/performance and application of FTIR's. A contract for $2 million has been received from the government to begin development of ChemPen. Numerous military/government agencies have expressed strong interest in the Chempen, which would have obvious applications to alert first responders, solders, UAV's etc. to toxic environments. In addition there are a number of commercial applications such as detection of toxic or dangerous gasses in all types of buildings (commercial, industrial, and residential), industrial process control, industrial quality control, pollution monitoring, leak detection, and analytical instruments used in educational, research and industrial labs. ***** For more detailed information on some of our more developed products, please visit our products page or click the "Our Products" button to the left. |