Profile: MOCON Inc (MOCO.O)

MOCON, Inc., incorporated in February 1966, designs, manufactures, markets and services products, and provides consulting services, primarily in the test and measurement, analytical instrument and services markets. The Company's products include instruments that detect, measure and monitor gases and other chemical. Its products serve markets such as foods, beverages, pharmaceuticals and consumer products, oil and gas exploration and industrial and environmental safety. In April 2012, it acquired PBI-Dansensor A/S.

Permeation Products and Services

The Company's permeation products consist of systems and services that measure the rate at which various gases and vapors transmit through a variety of materials. These products perform measurements under precise temperature, pressure and relative humidity conditions. The principal market for these products consists of manufacturers of packaging materials, including manufacturers of papers, plastic films, coatings and containers and the users of such packaging materials, such as companies in the food, beverage, pharmaceutical and consumer product industries. Other customers include manufacturers of displays, solar panels, fuel cells, and many other sophisticated materials. It also provides certain laboratory testing services to companies that have a need for permeation data. These services consist primarily of testing film and package permeation for companies that wish to outsource their testing needs to the Company; are interested in evaluating the Company's instrumentation prior to purchase, and have purchased its products but have a need for additional capacity.

Permeation instruments that the Company manufactures include OX-TRAN systems for oxygen transmission rates, PERMATRAN-W systems for water vapor transmission rates, and PERMATRAN-C systems for carbon dioxide transmission rates. Its AQUATRAN ultra-high sensitivity, trace moisture permeation analyzer has been accepted as the standard test instrument of choice in the flat panel, solar cell and electronics industries.

Gas Analyzer Instruments, Sensors and Detectors

The Company's Baseline-MOCON, Inc. subsidiary located near Boulder, Colorado offers advanced gas analysis and monitoring instrumentation used in applications, such as oil and gas exploration, process gas analysis, industrial hygiene and safety, environmental air monitoring and indoor air quality. In this group, it manufactures and sells two types of gases analyzer instruments: gas chromatographs (GCs) and total hydrocarbon analyzers (THA's). These instruments are installed in fixed locations at the monitoring sites and perform their functions of detecting and measuring various hydrocarbons continually or at regular intervals. It also makes gas sensors and detectors which are sold to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) of mobile gas safety equipment.

The Company's gas analyzer instruments, sensors and detectors are for use in industrial hygiene (detection of hazardous gases in the workplace), hydrocarbon gas analysis for oil and gas exploration, contaminant detection in the manufacture of specialty gases, and environmental monitoring (tracking the release, or the presence, of toxic substances). These substances can include the intentional release of toxic gases by terrorists, which would be a homeland security application. Its newest GC offering measures trace levels of contaminants in beverage grade carbon dioxide, which is used to carbonate soft drinks, beer and water. It markets some of these products under the names BEVALERT, PETROALERT, and piD-TECH.

Package Testing Products and Services

The Company manufactures and sells two primary products in this group: headspace analyzers and leaks detection equipment. The Company's headspace analyzer products are used to analyze the amount and type of gas present in the headspace of flexible and rigid packages, as applied to gas flushing in modified or controlled atmosphere packaging. The principal market for these products consists of packagers of foods, beverages and pharmaceuticals. Its headspace analyzer products include the PAC CHECK series of off-line headspace analyzers and the GSA series of on-line gas stream analyzers for continuous and intermittent monitoring of modified atmosphere packaging (MAP) and other gas flushing operations.

The Company's leak detection products detect leaks in sterile medical trays, food pouches, blister packs and a wide range of other sealed packages. It manufactures three types of leak detection instruments. The first type is a non-destructive leak detector that senses small amounts of carbon dioxide escaping from a package or tray. The second type of instrument detects leaks and checks for seal integrity by applying and measuring pressure within a package. The third type pulls a vacuum on a package and looks for vacuum or gas flow changes. The principal markets for these products are packagers of sterile medical items, pharmaceuticals and food products. The Company markets these products under the names PAC CHECK, LIPPKE, SKYE and PAC GUARD.

Other Instruments and Services

The Company provides consulting and analytical services, on a special projects basis, for customers that require custom solutions to problems. Services that the Company provides relate to absorption or diffusion of various compounds; shelf-life concerns; flavor or odor identification, and other special permeation applications. The principal markets for its consulting and analytical services consist of manufacturers of foods, beverages, pharmaceuticals, plastics, chemicals, electronics and personal care products.

The Company sells various gas chromatographic (GC) instruments and provides services with an emphasis on multidimensional gases chromatography through its Microanalytics Instrumentation Corp. (Microanalytics) subsidiary, which is located near Austin, Texas. A variety of GC specific applications have been developed by Microanalytics, ranging from petroleum and petrochemical purity assay to aroma and off-odor analysis for the food, beverage, packaging and other industries. It integrates GCs and components that the Company purchases from third parties to form multidimensional GC analyzer systems. Its GC analyzer products include the AROMATRAX systems for odor and aroma analysis and profiling. The principal markets for the Company's GC analyzer products consist of food, beverage, pharmaceutical, petroleum, chemical and petrochemical manufacturers.

Weighing and Pharmaceutical Products and Services

The Company's weighing products automatically determine the weight of pharmaceutical capsules and tablets and reject those that are out of acceptable limits. It’s VERICAP high-speed capsule weighing system runs at rates up to 2,000 capsules per minute and can be integrated into a capsule production line in pharmaceutical factories. It’s AB automatic balance weighing systems are designed for off-line use for both tablets and capsules, and the Company markets these products primarily to the pharmaceutical industry. In addition, the Company sells tablet inspection systems and blisters packaging-related equipment through its Lippke subsidiary, which also sells products of other manufacturers.

Food Safety Products

The Company's food safety products are designed to automatically detect microbial contamination in food and beverage samples. Using the total viable count (TVC) method, the Company's GreenLight series of instruments perform precise measurements of bacterial load in raw meats, poultry, seafood, dairy and produce samples.