January 2011

This year ramé-hart is celebrating 50 years as the world leader in contact angle goniometry. In 1961, Ralph Nussbaum, George Meyer, and John Hertz formed ramé-hart and named it after parts of their names. They quickly established a reputation for engineering and precision machining. Shortly after its birth, ramé-hart was commissioned by the Naval Research Lab (NRL) in Washington, DC to build a prototypical contact angle goniometer based on the design of NRL's Dr. William Zisman. The instrument was so successful that it shortly became an established product - known originally as the Model A100 NRL Goniometer - and later as Model 100. The Model 100 was built by ramé-hart for over 40 years.

During the 1960's, in addition to the introduction of the Model 100 NRL Goniometer, ramé-hart designed and built the first line of accessories: an Environmental Chamber, a (film) camera option, various clamps and stage fixtures. By 1969, ramé-hart was selling two goniometers a month.

During the 1970's many more advanced options were introduced: the first tilting base, the Elevated Temperature Syringe, a High Pressure Chamber, the first microsyringe fixture, an Environmental Fixture, and a now-obsolete 35mm camera mount. Sales volume increased substantially and by the end of the decade, ramé-hart had firmly established itself among surface scientists and researchers as the standard for contact angle instrumentation.

During the 1980's while you were listening to Michael Jackson, Bon Jovi, and U2, ramé-hart was busy designing the first generation of vacuum chucks and rotating wafer supports for the budding silicon industry. Sales continued to grow and in 1989 the original founding fathers retired and sold their business to Ken Christiansen, Rolf Pfeil, Sam Rich, and Don Carlin, who all had extensive experience working at ramé-hart.

During the 1990's ramé-hart introduced the first software-controlled contact angle instrument based on a DOS program. Several of these models are still in use today. By the end of the 90's ramé-hart introduced its second-generation imaging program for contact angle analysis called RHI. The first environmental chamber with humidity as well as the Automated Dispensing System were also introduced. By the end of the decade, the manual optical instrument was reaching the end of its life cycle and the majority of systems were software-based. In 1999 ramé-hart had over $1M in goniometer sales for the first time.

In the past ten years, ramé-hart has undergone exponential growth. In 2004 the goniometer line became a stand-alone company named ramé-hart instrument co. with five partners. The remaining business, ramé-hart, inc., was purchased by a Danish company, Senovo Technology Group. Early in the decade, RHI was replaced with our third-generation DROPimage software which currently is available in three different editions. The tilting base was completely redesigned in 2007 and is now offered in a manual as well as a fully software-controlled automated version. The original humidity chamber was replaced with a newly designed Advanced Chamber which is available with temperature only or temperature and humidity control. The Oscillator for measuring surface dilatational elasticity and viscosity was introduced in 2008. In 2009 we introduced the highly successful Model 290 and later the equally popular Model 590 Advanced Automated Goniometer / Tensiometer.

As we are about to usher in our fiftieth year of innovation in contact angle goniometry, we would like to extend our sincere gratitude to our founding partners, subsequent owners, and current team for never failing to innovate and delivery a superior time-tested product. Most importantly, however, we thank our customers who rely on our expertise and  high precision instruments for measuring contact angle, surface tension, and related surface properties.

If you're interested in Model 250 but would like to add the Environmental Chamber, then consider Model 260. For more information, including a downloadable PDF Brochure, please visit: http://www.ramehart.com/260.htm. A complete and updated matrix of all of our instruments can be found here: http://www.ramehart.com/goniometer.htm.

If you would like a quotation for Model 260, 250, or any one of our instruments, please contact us today.