From: Olwyn Byron <o.byron@bio.gla.ac.uk>
  To  : rasmb@alpha.bbri.org
  Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1999 16:08:04 +0100

affordable sapphire and quartz windows

Dear RASMBers

Thanks to Derril Willard, John Philo, Karen Fleming and Eric Anderson for
their ultra-fast replies to my earlier question.
It seems that Meller Optics is the place to shop:

Meller Optics
P.O. Box 6001
120 Corliss St.
Providence, RI 02904
tel 1-800-821-0180 (only from the U.S.) otherwise1-401-331-3717
fax 1-401-331-0519

I'm told that this is the company that supplies Beckman Coulter.
The part number for sapphire Windows is SCD0267-01C and the turnaround time
is 2-3 weeks (or quicker if they are in stock).

In the UK the Beckman Coulter list price per sapphire window is 645
Sterling (at least in the Jan '99 price list).
I understand that Meller will supply the windows for 325 USD (203 Sterling)
per window
or 275 USD (172 Sterling) for orders of 5 or more.

Incidentally, several people advised me that Meller also supplies quartz
windows directly (265 USD each).
(part number for quartz windows is SCD0267 - 03C, description "crystal
quartz; disc, pl/pl 0.7492" dia. x 0.1969" thick, 507-301730 Rev. H").
Again the UK the Beckman Coulter list price per quartz window is 420
Sterling (Jan '99).

It may be of interest to all that we (and others now order our quartz
(spectrosil) windows from

TSL Group PLC
PO Box 6,
Wallsend
Tyne & Wear
NE28 6DG, UK

tel +44 191 262 5311   fax +44 191 263 8040

They charged us 14.86 Sterling (23.78 USD) per window (for an order of 20
pieces) with a delivery time of 4-5 weeks from date of receipt of firm
order.

The description for these is "Spectrosil 2000 disc, plate glass finish 19
±
0.15mm diameter x 5 ± 0.15mm thick"

We have had no problems with these windows.

All the best,
Olwyn Byron.





____________________________________________________________________________
Olwyn Byron
Division of Infection and Immunity
Institute of Biomedical and Life Sciences
Joseph Black Building, University of Glasgow
Glasgow, G12 8QQ, Scotland.

tel: +44 (0)141 330 3752  email: o.byron@bio.gla.ac.uk
fax: +44 (0)141 330 4600  web:   http://www.gla.ac.uk/Acad/IBLS/II/ob/ob.htm
____________________________________________________________________________