WELCOME
Welcome to the August 2016 Distributor Newsletter. We want to have more regular contact with our distributors and thought a newsletter format would work well. Enjoy!
Topics in this Issue
LISST-200X – sales are growing
LISST-ABS – gaining acceptance
LISST-Portable|XR in Industrial Applications
Large Order Received from Hungary for River Monitoring
LISST-VSF – Sudden Increase in Sales
Large Contract Received from US Navy for LISST-Glider Development
Sequoia Presents New Idea on Turbine Abrasion Protection
PiE conference in Budapest
Distributor Training
Summer Holiday – Office Closed
PRODUCTS UPDATE
LISST-200X – sales are growing
The LISST-200X is off to a strong start. The first LISST-200X was shipped in April 2016 and since then sales continue to grow. Through August we will have shipped more LISST-200X instruments than we shipped LISST-100X in the same period last year. We have a strong backlog of pending orders including China, India, Colombia and Peru. We have written additional articles for our website and we are doing some more active marketing via email and conferences. Please view the Related Articles on the product page. We are also working on potential joint marketing efforts with SeaBird on how the LISST-200X can be used with their CTDs.
LISST-ABS – gaining acceptance
We keep finding new markets for this product. The original LISST-Portable was designed for environmental applications such as river monitoring. The LISST-Portable|XR was the first version to be targeted to industrial applications such as the oil and gas drilling market. Over the last 6 months we have targeted other markets such as ceramics, chemical, medical, and food industries. All of these markets use laser diffraction so they are familiar with the technology, but they are not aware that a truly portable device exists. Because the LISST-Portable|XR can be taken right to the machine grinding the powders or taken from machine to machine, or plant to plant it provides new capabilities that can reduce cost of manpower or sample processing. Also the price of the LISST-Portable|XR is about half of what they typically pay for a lab instrument. It is not many markets where a LISST instrument is considered to be “cheap”. The market size for industrial particle sizers is much larger than the markets we serve now. If you have not explored the potential to reach out to these markets in your country, I would highly recommend that look into it. We have recently attended two conferences related to this market and have had very strong interest. In addition to customers we have also attracted many distributors from different countries that sell to these markets. They are very eager to sell the LISST-Portable|XR. We have not signed any of them up yet as we would like to give you the opportunity to reach these markets.
Large Order Received from Hungary for River Monitoring
The LISST-Portable|XR is not only for industrial applications. It is still very useful for monitoring particle size in rivers and streams and other environmental applications. In fact, last year we sold 14 LISST-Portable|XR and 4 LISST-100X to the Hungarian government for monitoring the Danube River.
LISST-VSF – Sudden Increase in Sales
The LISST-VSF is a very specialized instrument that measures laser light scattering from 0.1 to 150 degrees. The customers interested in the Volume Scattering Functions (VSF) are typically optical oceanographers and scientists in Universities or space agencies doing remote sensing work. One of our scientists, Dr. Wayne Slade has recently published some papers on using the LISST-VSF and this has led to a sudden burst of orders from the USA, Germany and India and a fourth order developing in China. There are other scientists around the world doing similar research where the LISST-VSF would be very useful.
CONTRACTS, CONFERENCES
Large Contract Received from US Navy for LISST-Glider Development
Sequoia has just received a contract from the US Navy via Rutgers University for the development of a version of the LISST-200X that will fit into a Teledyne Webb Slocum Glider. The contract includes the delivery of 10 instruments to the Navy. Sequoia will be working with Webb Research to make this version of the LISST-200X, which we are currently calling LISST-Glider. It will be available for other new and existing Glider customers. The application is to measure suspended sediments during typhoons. More information on the LISST-Glider will be made available as the project progresses.
Sequoia Presents New Idea on Turbine Abrasion Protection
Sequoia’s LISST-Infinite and LISST-Hydro products generate data on sediment concentrations in water entering turbines. However, there has been no guidance for powerplant operators on what levels are dangerous, or at what level the operator should shut down turbines. At a conference of the IAHR in Grenoble, France, 4-8 July 2016, Sequoia president Yogi Agrawal proposed a simple idea. According to this idea, a cost of abrasion is calculated at any instant. This quantity is the cost of repair of a turbine multiplied by the ratio of current sand transport rate (tons/hr) divided by the total sand transport after which repair is necessary. The shutdown is recommended when this cost exceeds revenue generation. The same idea was proposed simultaneously by Prof. Robert Boes of Switzerland. We shall be advising current users after the idea matures further.
Sequoia is organizing the 5th Particles in Europe (PiE) conference jointly with the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, and MacArtney Company of Denmark. The conference will be held in Budapest, Hungary on October 3-5, 2016. Full details of the conference can be found on the PiE webpage. One new feature of this year is that we will have space set aside for exhibitors. Invitations to companies that the organizing committee thought would be interested have been sent out and a few have responded that they would like to attend. We are also reaching out to our Distributors to see if they would like to exhibit. Please let Chuck Pottsmith know if you would like to exhibit at PiE.
DISTRIBUTOR TRAINING
New Material and Training in Europe
Sales through our International distributors make up a large percentage of our total sales, usually around 65% or more. We recognize that in order to continue to grow sales we need to continually help you with supporting material and training on existing and new products. In the past we have done this through training at our home office and through occasional documents or emails. We are working to improve the training materials and make them available for download so that learning can occur at your office. This will be through a series of self-guided PowerPoints and recorded videos. We will still continue to do live training from time to time. The next Distributor training will be at the PiE conference in Hungary. We welcome your suggestions on how we can improve the training or your effectiveness.
OFFICE CLOSED FOR SUMMER HOLIDAY
Summer Holiday – Office Closed
Late August in the Seattle area is a beautiful time of year. The weather is warm and the skies are clear. In order to give our employees time to spend with their families and enjoy the last bit of summer our office will be closed starting Monday August 29, 2016 through Monday Sept 5, 2016. Our office will open again on Tuesday Sept 6, 2016. Both the Info@SequoiaSci.com and the Support@SequoiaSci.com will be monitored during this time should you have any urgent need to reach us.