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In 1904 Heraeus developed the first quartz glass lamp that produced ultraviolet light identical to sunlight. The Original Hanau^® qualifies Heraeus as the inventor of the UV high pressure lamp and as a pioneer in tanning using artificial light sources. The artificial sunray lamp (Höhensonne^®) laid the foundation for tanning salons and today's tanning market. However, the mercury vapor quartz glass lamp developed in 1904 by physicist and Heraeus chief developer Richard Küch was first used extensively in medical phototherapy.

In order to be better able to take advantage of the potential of this invention, Heraeus and AEG jointly established the firm Quarzlampengesellschaft mbH in 1906. The artificial sunray lamp Original Hanau® was ultimately developed in close cooperation with medical institutions. The new lamp displayed the same invigorating effects as sunrays in the mountains.

A steadily increasing number of applications in medicine and dermatology – such as total body exposure for invigoration, vitamin D prophylaxis or supportive therapy - caused quartz glass lamps to become part of the equipment inventory of every hospital and many physicians' offices.
The continuous development and the successes of medical phototherapy made the Höhensonne® product line the market leader in Germany in the 1930s. In the 1950s, the small Höhensonne® advanced to become an electrical consumer item as a tanning lamp that was used in many households. However, the development did not stand still. In the late 1970s, the "artificial sunray lamp" increasingly captured the professional tanning market. Today, the successors of the mercury vapor quartz glass lamps – fitted with sophisticated filtration systems and satisfying the most demanding safety requirements – are found in many tanning salons as tanning lamps.

Drinking water is essential to life, but also a rare and precious commodity. Only 2.5 % of the world’s water is fresh; the rest is saltwater. Clean drinking water is even scarcer. The decontamination of drinking water is still often achieved with the help of chemicals such as chlorine or ozone – an effective but environmentally contentious method.
It is possible to treat the water in a much more environmentally friendly manner, as no chemicals are used, by means of high-energy ultraviolet radiation. During this process, special UV lamps from Heraeus not only destroy micro-organisms such as bacteria, viruses, parasites, and fungi, but they also break down harmful chemicals. As the decontamination does not use chemicals and no chemical residues are left, the quality of the drinking water is affected in neither its taste nor its smell.

Current example: At a new waterworks in New York City, probably the world’s largest UV sterilization facility for drinking water is being built. Starting in 2010, the new waterworks is to provide over eight million cubic meters of water a day for more than nine million people in New York City and the surrounding area.

UV drinking water

Catalysts from Heraeus are used around the world in the chemical, petrochemical, and pharmaceutical industries, where they play an important role in purifying industrial gases and emissions. Heraeus has particular expertise in selecting the most effective catalyst for the job and matching it with the appropriate base material. One such product with a long history at Heraeus: finemesh platinum gauze, produced here since 1916, and used in ammonia combustion in the production of nitric acid. The catalytic effect of the gauzes, which can reach a diameter of up to six meters, has improved consistently over recent decades. Today, an innovative combination of these gauzes paired with an additional catalyst made from ceramic coated with precious metal makes an important contribution to preserving our environment. When ammonia oxidizes, it creates nitrous oxide as an unwanted byproduct. This greenhouse gas possesses 310 times the damaging potential of carbon dioxide. And every year more than one million tons of nitrous oxide are released, that is equal to the carbon dioxide climate pollution that around 80 million cars inflict on the atmosphere. But the new catalyst system from Heraeus destroys up to 90 % of the nitrous oxide produced.

Catalyst greenhousegases

Modern temperature measurement technology had its beginnings more than 100 years ago. On July 1, 1906, the German Imperial Patent Office granted Heraeus a patent for an "electrical resistance thermometer made of platinum wire." The claim specifies that the platinum is wound onto a quartz spindle and covered with a thin-walled quartz cylinder, which is then fused to the spindle. This development marked the start of a long series of innovative sensors and temperature probes. The platinum wire wound onto quartz glass made it possible to measure high temperatures reliably and quickly, because the innovative construction allowed measurement instruments to achieve very good accuracy even at high temperatures.

The measurement principle is simple, and it remains fundamentally unchanged: The electrical resistance of pure platinum rises uniformly in a linear relationship with its temperature. The temperature of a substance is measured by determining the resistance, from which the temperature is then calculated. Heraeus dubbed the first wound platinum resistance thermometers “Pt100.” Pt stands for platinum and 100 for a resistance of 100 Ohm at 0°C. For about 70 years, the wound Pt100 set the standards for industrial temperature measurement—in power plants, in chemical production facilities, and elsewhere.

Today, Heraeus is at the forefront of developments in thin film technology. The production of thin film sensors is a cutting-edge industry with very high standards, similar to those in the semiconductor industry. One of the latest uses for platinum temperature sensors is the monitoring of diesel particulate filters, where sensor systems from Heraeus contribute to the reduction of soot particulate emissions. The high temperature test prods (for temperatures up to 1,000°C) consist of a robust and highly stable thin film sensor.

The steel market is booming. Each year, more than one billion metric tons of steel are produced worldwide. In order to ensure quality, the temperature and chemical composition of molten steel and iron needs to be measured at regular intervals. Lance-shaped immersion sensors from Heraeus measure these parameters rapidly and accurately. The development departments at Heraeus Electro-Nite, with its headquarters in Houthalen, Belgium, design a wide range of custom sensors for use in direct contact with molten steel, combining them with traditional measuring methods.

Traditional temperature sensors are made of quartz glass tubes and platinum wire. With the help of a rigid roll of cardboard, the complete sensor head—which often contains an electrochemical measuring cell—is lengthened to form a lance. This makes it easier to immerse the sensor in molten steel. Each year more than 30 million sensors leave Houthalen, most of them disposable. They only need to operate for a few seconds in order to serve their purpose. The product line ranges from disposable sensors that measure oxygen and sulfur contents in a matter of seconds (Celox^® Hot Metal Probe) to temperature probes (Positherm^® ), and from multifunctional sensors (Multi-Lance^® ) to sensors that measure temperatures throughout the continuous casting process (CasTemp^® ).

Steelsensors

Around 10 billion tons of ballast water worldwide ensure stability on board ships, according to estimates of the International Maritime Organization (IMO). However, ballast water also regularly picks up microscopic organisms such as plankton, invertebrates, fish larvae and pathogens, and carries them into foreign ecosystems, where they often influence the ecological balance. This interference not infrequently leads to the extinction of native organisms, because they are suppressed by the introduced organisms. With high-powered UV mediumpressure lamps from Heraeus, the “stowaways” on ships can now be carefully eliminated.

www.heraeus-noblelight.com

In 2005, the ambitious NASA project “Gravity Probe B” began its decisive experimental phase when the research satellite of the same name was successfully launched to a height of 640 kilometers. The aim, to confirm or refute important predictions of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity. Over 18 months, the satellite collected vital measurement data; first evaluations confirm Einstein's theory. The “Gravity Probe B” satellite contained cutting-edge technology from Heraeus. The core component consisted of a 53 centimeter long block of quartz glass, attached to a quartz glass telescope and containing four gyroscopes. These ping pong ball-sized spheres, rotating at around 5,000 rpm, constitute the roundest objects in the world. They are made of the high-purity quartz glass Homosil, coated with superconducting niobium.

1891: The German Imperial Patent Office granted Patent No. 63591, the first in the history of Heraeus, for a process of adding gold to sheet platinum. Until the beginning of the 20th century, sulfuric acid—a workhorse compound in the chemical industry—was produced by the lead chamber process and heated and concentrated in platinum vessels (each forged of up to 50 kg of platinum). Heraeus developed vessels made of a mixture of gold and platinum that were even more resistant to the aggressive acid than pure platinum, reducing platinum losses tenfold.

Quartz glass has made its way from Hanau to the moon. The Apollo 11 mission in 1969 not only placed the first human on the moon, but also carried laser retroreflectors to accurately measure the distance between Earth and its closest celestial neighbor. Laser pulses beamed at the array from Earth are reflected by 100 fused silica half-cubes, and the round-trip travel time yields the distance between the two bodies at any time. The reflector is still in operation today. For this special application, Heraeus developed a version of the fused silica Suprasil, appropriately dubbed Lunasil, that is exceptionally durable in space.

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Nanotechnology is gaining ground in dentistry, as exemplified in a tooth line for total prosthesis developed by Heraeus. The nanostructure materials used give the prosthetic teeth 50 percent more abrasion resistance. This makes them last longer than conventional materials, providing a complete and functional bite, even into the later years. Bone defects in the jaw can be treated with another innovative product. The bone matrix material Ostim consists of nanocrystalline hydroxyapatite. The nanocrystals give the bone replacement material a very large specific surface, to which bone-forming cells can attach more easily and quickly. During this process, the nanocrystals are resorbed and replaced by endogenous bone. Dentists use Ostim, for example, for rebuilding bone after root tip resection, restoration of cyst defects and implantation.

www.heraeus-kulzer.com

In June 2007, at the German Electron Synchrotron in Hamburg the starting signal was given for the construction of the largest X-ray laser in Europe. The XFEL project- X-ray free-electron laser- should provide European researchers with previously unknown insights into the world of molecules and tiny structures. After the start of construction in spring 2008 and the expected commissioning in 2013, it is possible that the last secrets of chemical reactions will be revealed to scientists. Hightech material from Heraeus – high-purity niobium for the production of cavity resonators, the heart of the accelerator - is used in the X-ray laser.

Heraeus is contributing its many years of experience in electron beam melting and processing of high-purity niobium. Heraeus uses research projects of high energy physics to constantly enhance products like niobium and advance into new dimensions of quality and purity. In the XFEL, electrons are accelerated to almost the speed of light, and then stimulated to emit high-intensity, extremely short flashes of X-ray laser radiation. The wavelength of this X-ray light is so short that even atomic details become discernible. Extremely high energy is needed to get the electrons moving in particle accelerators.
In order to keep the energy requirement low, superconducting cavity resonators made from the special metal niobium are used, and operated at a fraction above absolute zero (minus 273°C). At this temperature, current flows through the components loss-free, without electrical resistance.
With one of the largest and most modern melting plants and a special conditioning technique, it is possible to keep the oxygen content below 1 ppm (part per million). Heraeus is thus able to produce the purest niobium in the world on an industrial scale.

Niobium

Medical products manufactured by Heraeus constitute important components of various medical devices used to improve patients' quality of life. Heraeus develops, produces and sells a wide range of semi-finished products, components, housings and assemblies made of precious and special metal materials, such as electrodes for neuro-stimulation and electrode tips for cardiac pacemakers. These products are used primarily in cardiology, cardiac rhythm management and minimally invasive surgery. Most cardiac pacemakers nowadays already include Heraeus parts.

Cardiac pacemaker

When it comes to anchoring a hip prosthesis securely to the bone, the Heraeus bone cement Palacos^® has set the standard in Europe and the United States for almost 50 years. It has also proven effective as a base for antibiotics, thus reducing the risk of infection in joint replacement surgery. Long-term clinical trials and clinical documentation confirm that prostheses cemented with Palacos^® have a particularly long service life. Heraeus markets this high-quality bone cement worldwide and continues to develop the product. Recently approved, for example, was a version containing two antibiotics that is particularly useful in cases of gentamicin resistance.

Palacos

Quartz glass, whether natural or synthetic, probably ranks among the most extraordinary materials used in industry. Unlike ordinary window glass, for example, quartz glass consists exclusively of silicon and oxygen (SiO2). Quartz glass is worked at temperatures of around 2,000°C. At that high temperature, quartz glass does not melt; instead, it becomes viscous—like tar on a hot summer day. Quartz glass is particularly resistant to changes in temperature: When heated and then plunged into a vat of water to cool, it does not shatter. Quartz glass is one of the purest materials in the world. It contains trace elements on the order of magnitude of ppb (parts per billion). One part per billion is the equivalent of six (identical) individuals among the world’s total population of six billion people. The light permeability of quartz glass is legendary: At certain wavelengths, quartz glass 100 meters thick is as transparent as thin window glass. To learn more about quartz glass, click on the following link.

Microlithography