August 2011

We're happy to announce that we've moved to a new permanent location in Succasunna, New Jersey, only six miles from our former location in Netcong. Our new building more than doubles our office and work area.

Front Entrance to Our New Building

We now have 2500 sq ft of office, lab, and warehouse space. We have new offices in the front for sales, purchasing, finance and administration. We also have ample storage areas and a large shipping and receiving department in the rear.

Crane Installing Our New 7.5 Ton HVAC Unit on Roof

This is only the fourth move in our 50 year history. Our first location since 1961 was at 43 Bloomfield Avenue in Mountain Lakes. In the early 1990's we moved to 8 Morris Avenue also in Mountain Lakes, NJ (where our sister company, ramé-hart, inc., still operates). In 2003 we moved our sales office to 95 Allen Street in Netcong, NJ, and later in 2007 we moved our production and warehouse to the same location. We outgrew our Netcong location due to increased sales and our expanded product line (e.g., Models 260, 290, 590). And so now we call Succasunna our new home and hope to stay here for many years to come. 

Our new physical address is:

ramé-hart instrument co.
19 Route 10 East, Suite 11
Succasunna, NJ 07876 USA

The above address is also our Ship To address for all parcels arriving by courier (UPS, FedEx, DHL) or by truck, and for visitors. However, our mailing address remains the same, which is:

ramé-hart instrument co.
PO Box 400
Netcong, NJ 07857 USA

Note that our email and phone numbers have not changed. All of our current contact information can always be found on the contact us page on our website.
 

As a follow up to our article last month on making plastic parts more hydrophobic, we're reporting this month on a related application being developed by researchers at MIT¹ which makes it easier to collect water in dry regions of the world. (MIT has at least six ramé-hart goniometers and tensiometers.)

Currently inhabitants in regions of Africa, for example, spend an inordinate portion of their day traveling to and from water sources. By making a novel material which has both hydrophobic and hydrophilic regions, clean water can be collected which reduces the need to travel great distances.

The material is fabricated using a nano-structured surface which is coated with a fluorinated silane resulting in areas that are superhydrophobic. Other areas on the fabric are made hydrophilic by applying polymers. The result is a water cloth that collects moisture in the hydrophilic regions until it rolls to a superhydrophic area which is used to channel the water along a designated path so it can be collected. In addition, the hydrophilic area is treated with an antibacterial agent which purifies the water during the collection process.

While the African Water Cloth appears to be a novel concept, it's really an example of biomimicry. The Namibian Beetle lives in about the most arid part of the world, the Namib desert in Africa. His back features microscopic and hydrophilic bumps which attracts water from the ocean fog. And then the water slides down superhydrophic channels to the beetle's back and then to his thirsty mouth. A Namibian Beetle can drink enough water in one fogging to increase its body weight by over 10%.

Researchers at MIT and elsewhere are not satisfied with simply copying the Namibian Beetle. Rather, they attempt to improve and optimize the system in order increase performance and add important benefits such as purification. However, just for the record, Mother Nature thought of it first.

¹ See: http://www.technologyreview.com/nanotech/16933/