The firm makes CO2 sensors, including the LEDs that go inside them, and sells them into applications including health and safety monitoring, and health care.
“We manufacture the sensors in-house,” said GSS quality manager Graeme Addison. “Upgrading from ISO 9001:2008 ensures that we’re meeting the latest standards for quality management. The major difference in the new standard is that it focusses on the reduction of risk.”
Production space has actually been more than doubled, and office space has doubled to accommodate the additional staff.
“We were very fortunate that we were able to acquire the business unit next door so that we did not have to relocate,” said Addison. “This has now been integrated into our manufacturing facility, and gives us the capacity to grow as we further develop our international markets. At the same time, we extended our manufacturing quality system to meet ATEX requirements for some of our custom sensor projects.”
The company was founded on the idea of using mid-infra-red LEDs for CO2 sensing, with a technique that allows cuts power consumption to the point that sensors can be battery-powered. “In addition, they can be made to measure both low and high CO2 concentration levels, right up to 100%,” said the firm.
Two wavelengths are used, 4.2 and 4.4μm, and a technique called non-dispersive infra-red absorption. The firm developed its own LEDs specifically tuned to emit at these wavelengths. Sensor readings can be taken in less than a second.
It has three families of CO2 sensors:
- CozIR – low power, long lasting, aimed at battery and IoT applications.
- SprintIR – high speed, fast response.
- ExplorIR – robust, for harsh environments such as vibrations, shocks and pressure changes.
