Thin-film specialist sustainability recognised.

The EcoVadis Silver Medal has been awarded again to Kurz in recognition of its sustainability performance in 2026. Despite stricter assessment criteria compared to the previous year, the company ranks among the top 15 percent of all companies assessed worldwide and among the top 10 percent in its industry.

EcoVadis evaluates companies based on a wide range of criteria covering environmental standards, labor and human rights, ethics, and sustainable procurement. The assessments are conducted by independent experts in accordance with international standards. The ratings provide companies and their business partners with a standardized basis for comparing sustainability performance.

The award reflects the company's ongoing efforts to advance its sustainability initiatives. KURZ achieved further improvements in its ratings compared to the previous year, particularly in the areas of environmental standards and ethics. Guided by its motto ‘Be a green leader,’ the thin-film specialist continues to pursue its sustainability strategy. This includes continuously improving processes and products with the aim of reducing CO₂ emissions and material consumption, among other objectives.

"Sustainability is not a short-term trend for us, but a long-term commitment that requires perseverance and consistent action. The recognition from EcoVadis confirms that we have taken important steps in the right direction over the past few years," says Dr. Andreas Hirschfelder, Member of the Executive Board at Kurz. "We take a long-term approach and accept responsibility – for our employees, our customers, our partners, and the environment. At KURZ, we do not view sustainability as a stand-alone initiative, but as an integral part of our corporate culture."

Investing in resource conservation.
The company remains committed to further improving its sustainability performance in the years ahead. The company is already investing in initiatives such as photovoltaic systems and a power-to-heat system with thermal energy storage. In addition, Kurz is implementing measures to reduce energy consumption, emissions, and material use, while also operating its own recycling system. The company plans to systematically enhance and expand these initiatives in the coming years.

---

@KurzInstruments @LEONHARD_KURZ @ecovadis @PresseBox @UnnGmbh #Sustainability #Pauto #TandM

Femtosecond laser factory opened.

Chipmaking, data centre equipment, and medicine all need more femtosecond lasers, yet global production capacity was only an estimated 9,600 units last year. Femtosecond laser company LITILIT have just opened a new factory in Vilnius (LT) and plans to reach 3,000 lasers a year at full capacity.

According to the company, the factory currently has the highest potential femtosecond laser capacity in the world. The majority of the company’s lasers will be exported to North America, Asia, and Europe.

The new factory covers 4,000 sq m and will produce around 3000 lasers a year at full capacity. The €6 million project includes a modern CNC metal machining shop, robotized femtosecond laser assembly and testing shops, and an ISO 5 cleanroom of about 2,500 sq m, one of the largest in the Baltics.

Nikolajus Gavrilinas

Nikolajus Gavrilinas, co-founder and CEO of LITILIT, says that the new factory marks an important milestone both for the company, which has been developing its laser technology since 2014, and for the whole laser industry.

“The growing use of femtosecond lasers in semiconductor manufacturing, data centre equipment, electronics, medicine and other fields is driving demand across Europe, North America and Asia. Our factory comes at exactly the right time and will serve businesses on all three continents. The Vilnius plant is only the first stop; later, we plan to replicate this model in other countries together with our international partners," says Gavrilinas.

Located in a modern logistics park developed by SIRIN Development in Vilnius, the factory covers over 4,000 sq m and houses a CNC metal machining shop, robotized assembly and testing shops, and an ISO 5 cleanroom of about 2,500 sq m, one of the largest in the Baltics. The total value of the project is €6 million.

Gavrilinas notes that femtosecond laser production remains limited worldwide because the technology evolved from scientific systems and is notoriously difficult to produce at scale. Last year, global femtosecond laser production capacity was an estimated 9,600 units, according to Reports and Markets.

LITILIT can scale laser production quickly because of its patented architecture based on modular design, reduced component complexity, and a high level of automation. At full capacity, the factory will employ about 150 people, several times fewer than conventional production would require. Besides scalability, the architecture also gives LITILIT's lasers a performance edge. According to Gavrilinas, they reach around 20% electrical-to-optical efficiency and are up to half the size of the industry average, which makes them easier to integrate into production lines.

The company developed its technology based on two international patents, one of which was made in collaboration with the centre for Physical Sciences and Technology (FTMC) in Lithuania.

Ramūnas Skaudžius, director at FTMC, says the factory is a reminder that the value of scientific research is measured not only by publications or patents. It also confirms that in Lithuania it is possible to complete the entire journey from a scientific idea to a product serving global markets.

“The laser technology developed and patented at FTMC has now become the foundation of advanced industrial manufacturing. Yet the technology itself is not the most important part of the story. What matters most is that knowledge created in Lithuania has been transformed into a business capable of competing on the international stage. This is a long and demanding journey that requires not only scientific excellence, but also entrepreneurial courage, investors’ confidence, and perseverance,” Skaudžius says. 

Femtosecond lasers use extremely short pulses that process materials with only minimal heat damage to surrounding structures. This quality, known as cold ablation, makes them indispensable in applications ranging from eye surgery and vascular stents to manufacturing computer chips and display screens.

---

#Litilit #laser #Ai  #PAuto #Lithuania

Innovators honoured.

Company honours the people behind its pioneering achievements.

Endress+Hauser has honoured the company’s inventors at the 2026 Innovators’ Meeting in Basel (CH). 294 initial applications were filed with patent offices worldwide last year, 41 new products and R&D expenditure of €281.4 millions underscore the company’s innovative strength. In total, more than 9,400 active patents and patent applications protect the company’s intellectual property.

Dr Mirko Lehmann, Chief Technology Officer and Dr Christine Koslowski, Director of Intellectual Property Rights, Endress+Hauser.  

Developers from across the Group who have been involved in patent applications come together to exchange ideas and present their most notable inventions. “The Innovators’ Meeting highlights just how much expertise, creativity, teamwork and perseverance go into our products,” says Dr Mirko Lehmann, Chief Technology Officer of the Endress+Hauser Group.

25 years of the Innovators’ Meeting: continuity and new momentum.
The first Innovators’ Meeting took place in July 2001. Following a hiatus in 2020 due to the pandemic, it was held for the 25th time in 2026. Of the 101 innovators from the first meeting, 35 are still active in the company today. Fifteen of them filed patents again in 2025. At the same time, 89 inventors from Endress+Hauser were involved in a patent application for the first time.

“Our innovative strength thrives on the collaboration between experienced and new inventors. Endress+Hauser’s long-term focus and values-based culture create an environment where experience is passed on and new ideas can flourish,” says Dr Christine Koslowski, Director of Intellectual Property Rights at Endress+Hauser.

Significant investment in research and development.
Last year, Endress+Hauser invested 281.4 million euros in research and development, 2.1 percent more than in the previous year. This represents 7.0 percent of sales. The slight decrease in this ratio compared with last year is attributable to accounting effects related to the acquisition of the gas instrumentation business from Endress+Hauser SICK. More than 1,300 employees at Endress+Hauser work exclusively in research and development, developing new solutions for customers across various industries.

Innovation for greater sustainability.
Endress+Hauser’s innovation efforts are aimed at making industrial processes more efficient and sustainable. In addition to product development, this includes improvements in production, logistics, IT and administration. The internal Ecodesign & Circularity Award, introduced in 2025, recognises solutions that combine environmental considerations, resource efficiency and technical benefits.

With the digitalisation of measurement technology, the importance of firmware, connectivity and the instruments’ integration capabilities is becoming more significant. In addition, the company develops software-based solutions and services, including cloud applications and artificial intelligence-based approaches. Another key focus of the innovation efforts is the analysis and measurement of material properties. 

---

@Endress_Hauser @Endress_UK @Endress_US #PAuto 

Unwordly measurements...

Gathering a decade of accurate measurement data is a major feat in itself, but to do so on a robot travelling around the surface of an inhospitable planet 140 million miles away is almost unbelievable.

A selfie from Mars

But that is exactly what has happened; NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) ‘Curiosity’ landed on the planet Mars in August 2012. Since then, the Curiosity rover has continuously collected environmental measurement data that has delighted scientists around the world.

Some of the rover’s mechanical parts are showing signs of wear due to the very challenging environmental conditions on Mars, but the measurement sensors are still going strong, delivering unique data and dramatically surpassing the initial two-year mission objective. Among the most important measurements are humidity and pressure – parameters that are measured by sensors supplied by the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI), using measurement technologies from Vaisala.

Mars is dusty and cold, with a very thin atmosphere. The average temperature is about −63 °C, but daytime surface temperature highs of +35 °C have been recorded. From a research perspective Mars offers an opportunity to better understand the ways in which Earth has evolved and how it may change in the future. For example, if Mars and Earth were both wet and warm a few billion years ago, why did they subsequently take different paths?

The Curiosity rover is mobile, which means that it is acting as a weather station in multiple locations. In addition, NASA’s latest Mars rover, Perseverance is also now travelling across the surface of Mars, taking measurements with similar Vaisala technologies. Operating about 2,000 km apart, the two rovers are laying the foundations for an atmospheric observation network, which is needed to better understand and predict the Martian weather.

Vaisala sensor chip

Sensor performance is out of this world!
It is difficult to imagine more challenging conditions than those experienced by the sensors onboard NASA’s rovers, both during the flight and whilst exploring the planet’s surface. In addition to enormous variations in temperature and pressure, the sensors must also be capable of tolerating thick dust and very high levels of vibration.

The Vaisala measurement technologies deployed on Curiosity and Perseverance are essentially the same as those that are in everyday use in almost every industry on Earth, although Vaisala made a slight modification to the pressure sensor in order to accommodate the very low ranges that are experienced on Mars.

Vaisala’s determination to constantly innovate and develop world-leading measurement technologies is underpinned by ongoing investment in product development and research. Driven by scientific curiosity and supported by inhouse expertise and experience, it has been possible to deliver sensor performance that is quite literally out of this world!

---

* See Mars Curiosity Images on NASA site.

@VaisalaSuomi, @VaisalaGroup  @_Enviro_News #Astronautics #Automation #Mars

Weather in Mars!

Vaisala has just published a new video describing the robotic weather station aboard NASA’s Perseverance rover, which is currently conducting investigations on the planet Mars. 

The video features Jose Antonio Rodriguez Manfredi, MEDA (Mars environmental dynamic analyzer) Principal Investigator, who explains how the instrumentation is characterising, monitoring and studying atmospheric dynamics on Mars. This information, he explains, will be essential in the preparation for future human visits – helping to design astronaut suits for example.

• More Vaisala videos of this project.

• How's the weather on Mars? (Aerospace America - Jul/Aug'21)

@VaisalaGroup @aiaa @NASAPersevere @_Enviro_News #Astronautics #Automation 

Accelerating the delivery of environmental benefits.

The Finnish city of Lahti is accelerating the delivery of environmental benefits with the assistance of Vaisala. With sustainability at its core, and featuring in many of its products, Vaisala (a Finnish company) is Lahti’s ideal partner.

The European Commission established the annual European Green Capital Award in 2008 to promote and reward commitment and innovation to resolve environmental challenges. Lahti has been awarded the prestigious title of European Green Capital 2021, with previous winners including Nantes, Copenhagen, Bristol, Ljubljana, Essen, Nijmegen, Oslo, and most recently Lisbon.

Vaisala’s roots in environmental measurements can be traced back to its origins, when in the 1930s Professor Vilho Väisälä invented some of the operating principles of radiosondes; updated versions of this are still used to this day to measure vital meteorological parameters. From a humble beginning, Vaisala has grown to become the world’s leading manufacturer and supplier of weather monitoring equipment and services. The importance of measurements undertaken with Vaisala equipment has grown enormously, enabling researchers to track, model, and predict climate change.

Curiosity and innovation were two key features in Vaisala’s early development. They still underpin the company to this day, together with a clear customer focus, product quality, and sustainability.

Sustainability
As a core value, sustainability drives every aspect of Vaisala’s operations; from its own business practices to the impact of its products. Vaisala has integrated the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into its strategic planning in order to contribute to sustainable development and find inspiration for the development of new business and sustainable business practices.

Few companies can claim to operate on 100% renewable energy, but this is one of the ways in which Vaisala has knitted sustainability into its everyday operations. In recognition of its achievements, Vaisala was recently ranked 14th in the Financial Times (GB) list of 300 European climate leaders. However, for Vaisala, the greatest sustainability impact is through the use of its products: customers can, for example, prepare for extreme weather, make renewable energy production more efficient, or reduce emissions from their industrial processes.

In addition to its world-leading role in meteorological measurements, Vaisala develops measurement technologies for industrial applications in almost every sector. These technologies enable customers to optimize their processes, lower costs, reduce waste, decrease energy consumption, and in some cases reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases.

There are perhaps too many applications to list here, but good examples include advanced carbon dioxide measurement technology in supermarkets and food storage facilities to enable safe monitoring of natural refrigerants rather than CFCs and HCFCs, which are very powerful greenhouse gases. Similarly, Vaisala has developed a unique in-line gas monitoring probe for biogas, which enables operators to optimize the generation of renewable energy, derive more value from organic waste, improve profitability, lower greenhouse gas emissions, and recycle agricultural nutrients.

Many of Vaisala’s industrial measurement technologies enable process optimization. For example, sensors measuring the refractive index of liquids are used in a wide variety sectors, including food and beverage, semiconductors, chemical and refining, pulp and paper, textiles and pharmaceutical. In brewing, for example, in-line sensors are used to optimize every stage of the process and ensure the production of consistent quality beer.

Quality
Ever since the company was founded, Vaisala has demonstrated a heavy commitment to product quality. This is because customers use data from Vaisala instruments to make important decisions, so there is a constant drive in the company to find ways to make the products perform better. This focus on product quality has become a brand value for Vaisala and is one of the main reasons for the company’s enduring success.

The quality, flexibility, and reliability of Vaisala’s products have generated an extraordinarily wide global customer base, but the list of applications has stretched even beyond planet Earth. When working on NASA’s Mars rovers, the scientists needed reliable sensors that would be sufficiently robust to operate in the challenging Martian climate. Vaisala’s humidity and pressure sensors have therefore been measuring on Mars in the ‘Curiosity’ rover since August 2012 and in the ‘Perseverance’ rover since February 2021.* The core technologies employed by these sensors are the same as those deployed in applications here on Earth.

Curiosity, innovation, and customer focus
While Vaisala constantly seeks to recruit individuals with curiosity, drive, and imagination, it also focuses on developing products that meet customer needs. This is achieved by continuous and strong investments in R&D and an over-riding culture of continuous improvement.

Vaisala’s ability to solve customers’ problems stretches back through its history. In the early 1970s, humidity was measured by hair hygrometers or psychrometers which were bulky and notoriously unreliable. In 1973, Vaisala introduced HUMICAP®, the world’s first thin-film capacitive humidity sensor. Since then, Vaisala has become the market leader in relative humidity measurements, and thin-film capacitive humidity sensors have developed from one company’s innovation into a global industry standard. Initially developed for meteorology, HUMICAP sensors are now employed in applications as diverse as greenhouses, bakeries, warehouses, construction sites, brick and timber kilns, wine cellars, museums, and art galleries.

More recently, Vaisala technology has been utilized in the fight against COVID-19, with customers seeking accurate, reliable measurements for parameters such as carbon dioxide inside the incubators that are used to cultivate viruses for vaccine development.

Partnership with the European Green Capital 2021

Vaisala’s sustainability story continues with the European Green Capital. Air pollution causes an estimated 7 million premature deaths per year globally, 400,000 of which are in Europe. While Finland enjoys better air quality than most countries, some 1,800 premature deaths still occur every year. The partnership between Vaisala and Lahti will therefore focus on air quality and involve the installation of two compact air quality monitoring stations in the city centre.

Vaisala’s compact air quality sensors will monitor continuously and complement the reference-grade air quality monitoring stations that Lahti has been using so far to assess the quality of air in the city. The data will also help to investigate the sources of pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide and fine particulates, which are likely to be derived from diesel vehicles and wood-burning stoves.

In Lahti, Vaisala continues its long-standing mission to provide customers with the world's most reliable measurements where it truly matters. With this data, researchers and decisions-makers can optimize their operations and make decisions to tackle the greatest climate and sustainability challenges of our time.

* Red, hot and humid? Finding out! (16/2/2021) and More news from the Red Planet! (15/4/2021)

@VaisalaGroup @GreenLahti2021 @EU_ENV @EU_GreenCapital @SustDev #Environment #Europe

Lowering Covid risk with smart ventilation.

Anu Katka, an indoor environment expert from Vaisala (FIN), examines the role that ventilation systems will play in protecting people in offices and other work spaces from future microbiological threats. She also explains why the reliable measurement of carbon dioxide will be critically important because it is the best measure of effective ventilation.

As countries emerge from the pandemic, it will be interesting to see what the ‘new normal’ looks like. Will workers return to their offices full time? Or will there be a new preference for more flexible hours and for hybrid working (home + office). Either way, there will be a new, heightened responsibility to account for microbiological hazards such as Covid-19 in the provision of safe indoor environments.

Lessons from COVID-19
COVID-19 is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which is transmitted in two ways by infected people. Firstly, viruses can survive on surfaces for up to several weeks¹, especially at cooler room temperatures². Consequently, fomite transmission is possible when people touch infected surfaces and transfer the virus to their mouth, nose or eyes. Secondly, the virus can spread from an infected person’s mouth or nose in small liquid particles when they cough, sneeze, speak or breathe. These liquid particles vary from larger respiratory droplets to smaller aerosols of less than 5µm diameter.

According to the World Health Organisation³ (WHO): Aerosol transmission can occur in specific settings, particularly in indoor, crowded and inadequately ventilated spaces, where infected person(s) spend long periods of time with others, such as restaurants, fitness classes, nightclubs, offices and/or places of worship.

Supporting the hypothesis that SARS-CoV-2 is transmitted primarily by the airborne route, a recent paper in the Lancet, provided: Ten scientific reasons in support of airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2. ⁴

By understanding the modes of transmission, governments have been able to define appropriate strategies to combat viral transmission with measures such as facemasks, social distancing, hand washing and surface disinfection. Importantly, governments have also recognised the increased threat from indoor environments, with recommendations for outdoor activity and increased ventilation.

In November 2020, the British Government published a video⁵ highlighting the importance of ventilation in reducing the spread of Covid-19. Their report said: “Research shows that being in a room with fresh air can reduce the risk of infection from particles by over 70%”

In January 2021 hundreds of Canadian experts (physicians, scientists, occupational health and safety experts, engineers and nursing professionals) wrote an open letter⁶ to their Prime Minister urging him to: “to update provincial COVID-19 guidelines, workplace regulations and public communication to reflect the science — COVID-19 spreads through inhaled aerosols.” One of the key recommendations in the letter was to: “Recommend and deploy carbon dioxide (CO₂ ) monitors as a surrogate measure in case of inadequate ventilation to reduce long-range transmission risk in shared room air. During a TB outbreak, CO₂  concentrations above 1000 PPM significantly increased the risk of becoming infected with TB. Improving the building ventilation to a CO₂ concentration of 600 PPM stopped the outbreak in its tracks.”

The significance of particle size
The WHO says that infected people appear to be most infectious just before they develop symptoms. In addition, some infected people are asymptomatic, so it is logical to assume that in an office environment, for example, the main threat will NOT come from people with severe symptoms such as coughing and sneezing, but from those who do not realise that they have the disease. These people are more likely to exhale viral aerosols of less than 5µm diameter – particles which do not respect social distancing. These fine aerosols are roughly equivalent in size to the particles in cigarette smoke, which, as we know, do not settle readily and are able to spread widely in poorly ventilated spaces.

A recent paper published in The Lancet⁷ described studies of cough aerosols and exhaled breath from patients with various respiratory infections which showed striking similarities in aerosol size distributions, with a predominance of pathogens in small particles (<5 -="" air="" airborne="" and="" are="" by="" can="" conditions="" currents="" dilution="" immediately="" indefinitely="" indoor="" is="" m="" most="" or="" p="" particles="" remain="" removal="" respirable="" there="" these="" under="" unless="" ventilation.=""> Humidity also affects the spread of aerosols because low levels of humidity cause aerosols to become lighter and therefore better able to remain airborne. Humidity has also been shown to affect vulnerability to viral infection because exposure to dry air impairs host defense against influenza infection, reduces tissue repair, and inflicts cell breakdown.⁸

Risk reduction measures
Traditional health and safety risk assessments address hazards such as slips and trips, heavy objects, repetitive injury, falling, stress, electric shock, fire and lone working, but to create Covid-secure environments, organisations will need to also include an assessment of microbiological risk. It will therefore be necessary to identify potential sources of pathogenic microorganisms as well as their modes and paths of transmission.

Hand sanitizer can be made available and surfaces can be frequently disinfected. Procedures can be established to reduce the chance of disease transmission, with measures such as screens, social distancing and even disinfectant fogging. However, even with all of these measures in place, one infected person can quickly contaminate large areas. Effective ventilation will therefore be essential, and the control system will need to undertake accurate and timely measurements from each room or space so that it can respond promptly. Some systems may simply monitor CO₂  in the exhaust gas, but this does not provide the ability to detect poor ventilation issues in specific spaces.

Choosing the best measurement parameter
One of the main functions of a building automation/management system (BMS) is to control thermal comfort and optimize energy usage, so temperature is undeniably the most important control parameter in occupied spaces. Some systems also measure and control humidity to maintain a level of 40-60% RH. This is for health and comfort reasons as well as the protection of computer systems and the avoidance of structural or mould-related issues in the building.

Temperature measurements do not generally suffer from drift, but traditional humidity sensors do, so Vaisala’s HUMICAP^® sensors are preferable because of their long-term stability and insensitivity to interferences such as dust and condensation. These thin-film capacitive humidity sensors have become the industry standard in a wide variety of applications where long-term accurate, reliable, maintenance-free humidity measurements are required.

Increased humidity levels can be an indication of human activity and poor ventilation. However, humidity varies considerably as a result of external factors (e.g. freezing dry conditions or rainy humid conditions) rather than as a result of human exhalation.

To summarize, temperature and humidity monitoring play an important role in the optimization of a BMS, but where facility managers need to take into account the occupancy of people and reduce human-generated pollution in spaces, CO₂ is the ideal additional parameter for automatic ventilation control.

Using Carbon Dioxide measurement as a proxy for effective ventilation
Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) is exhaled by people as they breathe, so an accumulation of CO₂ indicates that (a) people are in the room and (b) the ventilation is insufficient, so a good ventilation system should be able to detect this and automatically apply the correct amount of ventilation. The system must be automatic, and it must be able to ventilate individual spaces, so that each space is ventilated optimally and energy is not wasted over-ventilating or ventilating spaces that do not need it.

Non-Covid advantages of CO₂ and humidity monitoring
The ASHRAE Green Standard 189.1(USA) and the European standard FprEN 16798-3 recommend using demand controlled ventilation (DCV) to reduce energy usage while promoting healthy indoor air.

From an HVAC design perspective, CO₂  is an ideal proxy for indoor air quality where the building is predominantly occupied by people. Humidity would be either better or at least a useful additional parameter, especially in buildings that are used to store artwork, books, wine, historic artefacts etc., or in buildings that are themselves in need of conservation.

Typically, outdoor air contains 250 to 400 ppm CO₂ . In contrast, exhaled breath contains around 50,000ppm CO₂  which represents a 100 fold increase over inhaled gas, so without adequate ventilation, when people are indoors, CO₂  levels will gradually rise. Both the comfort and performance of people inside buildings can be affected by CO₂  levels. Occupied spaces with good air exchange may contain 350-1,000 ppm, but anything above this can induce drowsiness, with levels above 2,000 ppm causing headaches, sleepiness, poor concentration, loss of attention, increased heart rate and slight nausea. Exposure to very high levels (from oil/gas burners or gas leaks) can even result in fatalities from asphyxiation.

Recommended minimum ventilation rates are provided for a wide variety of indoor spaces in ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 62.1-2019 Ventilation for Acceptable Indoor Air Quality.

Several studies have evaluated the effects of CO₂ concentration on cognitive function. For example, Allen et al (2016)⁹ found that cognitive function scores were 15% lower for the moderate CO₂  day (~945 ppm) and 50% lower on a day with CO₂  concentrations of ~1,400 ppm in comparison with two ‘Green+’ days (~ 540 ppm). On average, a 400-ppm increase in CO₂  was associated with a 21% decrease in a typical participant’s cognitive scores. DCV based on CO₂  measurements can therefore deliver improvements in well-being and productivity that far outweigh the costs of the DCV system itself.

Choosing the right CO₂  transmitter
It is important to resist the temptation to purchase the cheapest sensors that meet the required specification. This is because, whilst accuracy and range are important; the ongoing performance of the BMS will rely on the stability of the sensors.

Suppliers of HVAC systems will naturally prefer sensors that you can ‘fit and forget’. Consequently, it is necessary to select sensors that do not require frequent recalibration to prevent drift. However, the selection process is further complicated by sensors that claim to compensate for drift by implementing a software solution which assumes that the lowest measured readings are the same as the average outdoor concentration of CO₂ . The danger with this type of algorithm is that small errors are compounded as time passes; leading to very significant errors in the longer term. As an attempt to avoid true calibration, these software algorithm sensors are not applicable in spaces that are continuously occupied, and can also be fooled by building automation systems that aggressively ramp down fresh-air intake during off-peak hours. In some cases even the concrete in the walls may absorb CO₂  and thereby ‘trick’ the algorithm and create further inaccuracy.

There is potential for a slight conflict of interest between a BMS supplier/installer and a building owner/facility manager. For the former, the system must work perfectly immediately, and for at least the period of the warranty, but for the latter the requirement is more long-term.

The cost of a good sensor fades into insignificance in comparison with the benefits that it provides. Energy savings from accurate, need-based controls can be considerable, but even more importantly, the health and well-being of people inside of the building are protected and indoor conditions improve workplace performance.

The ideal solution is therefore to opt for Vaisala CARBOCAP^® CO₂ sensors. This is because they employ dual-wavelength NDIR technology capable of thriving in a variety of environments and able to conduct true self-calibration with an internal reference. The cost of this technology is insignificant in comparison with the energy costs of a BMS that is not efficient or with the cost of maintenance when low-cost sensors drift or fail.

It is not uncommon for Vaisala’s sensors to operate trouble-free for up to 15 years. This stability and reliability has been recognised around the world… and beyond. Vaisala sensors continue to operate on NASA’s Curiosity Rover¹⁰, which was launched in 2011, and on-board the Perseverance Rover which landed on Mars in February 2021.

References
1. Kampf, G. et al. (2020) Persistence of coronaviruses on inanimate surfaces and their inactivation with biocidal agents. Journal of Hospital Infection.
2. Ratnesar-Shumate S, et al. (2020). Simulated sunlight rapidly inactivates SARS-CoV-2 on surfaces. The Journal of Infectious Diseases.
3. World Health Organization: Covid-19 How it is transmitted.
4. Greenhalgh. T. et al (2021). Ten scientific reasons in support of airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2. THE LANCET. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)00869-2
5. There is still time (UK Gov)
7. Fennelly, K.P., (2020). Particle sizes of infectious aerosols: implications for infection control. THE LANCET, Respiratory Medicine, VOLUME 8, ISSUE 9, P914-924.
8. Kudo.E. et al (2019) Low ambient humidity impairs barrier function and innate resistance against influenza infection. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116 (22).
9. Allen J.G. et al. (2016) Associations of Cognitive Function Scores with Carbon Dioxide, Ventilation, and Volatile Organic Compound Exposures in Office Workers: A Controlled Exposure Study of Green and Conventional Office Environments. Environmental Health Perspectives 124:6 CID.
10. More from the Red Planet. (Apl 2021)

@VaisalaGroup @_Enviro_News #coróinvíreas #COVID19 #coronavirus #HVAC #BMS

Out of this world camerawork!

NASA successfully landed the Perseverance Rover on Mars on February 18th 2021. 

See Landing Film

This isn’t the first Mars mission, but it was the first time that the entry, descent, and landing of a spacecraft was filmed and broadcasted live for the public to watch and virtually participate in. 6 FLIR machine vision cameras captured the event from multiple angles, documenting all stages of the thrilling touchdown. While only a few minutes long, the footage has already helped engineers evaluate how well their work performed in space, and inspired millions of viewers around the world.

The Entry, Descent, and Landing (EDL) of the rover may only be a few minutes long, but there’s a lot going on in those few minutes. Here’s a breakdown of what you’re seeing and from what angle.

After entering the Martian atmosphere, the parachute deploys about 7 miles (11 kilometers) from the surface. Just before this point, three up-looking cameras began recording, capturing footage of the supersonic deployment of the most massive parachute ever sent to space.

Five miles off the ground, the heat shield (used to protect the rover during entry into the Martian atmosphere) drops off and exposes the rover down-look camera, showing some of the rover’s intense ride to Mars’ Jezero Crater.

Then the rover drops away from the back shell (and parachute). From there its descent is managed by a rocket-powered descent stage called the “SkyCrane.” Here’s a view of the rover captured by a down-looking camera on the SkyCrane:

Then it’s touchdown! Here’s a view (from a camera on the rover) of the SkyCrane being swept away as the rover touches down on the surface of Mars to begin its mission:

The cameras that captured this footage are FLIR RGB machine vision cameras, and include five 1.3-megapixel cameras and one 3.1-megapixel USB camera. “Our cameras are designed for operation on Earth, and not built to operate in outer space,” said Sadiq Panjwani, VP of the Integrated Imaging Solutions (IIS) division at FLIR. “So we were quite thrilled that NASA put them to the test.”

NASA began contacting FLIR in 2015 to investigate suitable cameras for the EDL (Entry, Descent Landing) system. Engineers were looking for commercial off the shelf (COTS) hardware with an emphasis on low cost and ease of system integration.

This is the first time that FLIR machine vision cameras have been subjected to the extreme temperatures or high gravity forces experienced during the Mars landing. Everyone involved in engineering and manufacture of cameras at FLIR is thrilled about this testament to their durability and performance. And of course, ecstatic to say that their work has made it to Mars!

• See also: Previous news on this MARS Perseverance Project. (November 2020 to April 2021)

@flir @NASAPersevere @mepaxIntPR #Astronautics #Automation #Mars

More news from the Red Planet!

NASA’s Perseverance rover has now spent its first months on the surface of Mars. The testing and deployment phase is proceeding well, and after the first technology demonstration with the Ingenuity helicopter, the rover is commencing the continuous scientific measurements. With the arrival of the humidity and pressure measurement instruments onboard Perseverance, the first meteorological network on another planet is being created.

This picture, taken by Perseverance’s navigational camera,
shows the MEDA HS humidity measurement instrument. 

The Perseverance rover landed successfully on Mars in February 2021 and will now explore an ancient river delta in the Jezero Crater for at least the next Martian year, which is approximately two Earth years. After the landing, the rover stretched its robotic arms and has already delivered a good number of high-quality photos, videos, and audio samples back to Earth.

The rover’s Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA) instrumentation suite, developed by a Spanish-led research consortium, has also been deployed. MEDA is a weather station that has been developed specifically for the conditions on Mars. Instruments by the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) and Vaisala are included in the MEDA suite to measure pressure and humidity conditions on Mars. The measurements and local wind data provided by the MEDA suite is also used by the Ingenuity Helicopter.

The measurement instruments need to be able to deliver reliable high-quality measurements even after the long space journey.

“Accurate and reliable science-based measurements are at the core of Mars research. That’s why it is great to receive verification that our sensors are working in the extreme conditions on Mars, even after the demanding space journey. Vaisala’s measurement technology is at its best in challenging measurement conditions,” says Liisa Åström, Vice President of Products and Systems at Vaisala.

“The equipment on Mars needs to work in all conditions and is tested accordingly. Manufacturing, testing, and finalizing the measurement instruments has been a major project lasting many years, so it feels great to see the instruments finally at work on Mars,” summarizes Maria Hieta, Research Engineer at FMI.

Hieta continues: “For instance, the humidity measurement instruments on Perseverance have gone through a tough selection process. FMI built 13 different instrument models around the humidity sensor, and these models were tested several times in harsh conditions such as very low temperatures. Additionally, the tests exposed them to vibration and shocks. The most reliable model was chosen as part of the MEDA equipment.”

First measurements reflect expectations
The MEDA equipment has now delivered the first round-the-clock measurement series on pressure and relative humidity to Earth. The measured values correspond to what was expected.

“The pressure levels and variation according to the time of day in the Jezero Crater reflect our models well. Relative humidity is practically zero (0% RH) during the day and rises during the night as the local temperature falls to nearly -80 °C. For comparison, 20 percent relative humidity is considered very low on Earth, and relative humidity near zero is hardly ever measured. The pressure data has also let us observe dust devils passing Perseverance, showing them as fast and sharp declines in the pressure signal,” explains Maria Genzer, Group Leader of Planetary Research and Space Technology at FMI.

Martian weather conditions and atmosphere interest Finnish researchers
The Perseverance rover has been designed to explore Mars’ conditions and geology as well as to search for signs of ancient life. Even though signs of life are fascinating, Finnish researchers are especially interested in the Martian atmosphere.

“Earth and Mars share a lot of similarities, which is why we find the study of Mars’ atmosphere so fascinating: it helps us to understand the behavior of Earth’s atmosphere. Additionally, dust storms on Mars can be harsh, so it is crucial to be able to predict the storms if we are to send manned space missions to Mars in the future. For this reason, Mars needs a weather station network,”Maria Genzer says.

Meteorological observation network based on Finnish expertise Perseverance and the Curiosity rover, which landed on Mars in 2012, provide measurements approximately 3,700 kilometers apart from each other. Both rovers carry similar Finnish pressure and humidity measurement instruments, which deliver data that is sent to Earth for analysis.

The data from the rovers, combined with observations from NASA’s InSight Lander on Mars, form the first three-point meteorological observation network on another planet. The network will enable even more accurate modeling of Mars’ atmosphere and its phenomena.

“In the future, we hope to get more measurement points on Mars. This is the ultimate goal for example in our MetNet program, in which we are developing small probes that will impact and penetrate Mars’ surface. These probes would then form a comprehensive meteorological observation network on the planet,” explains Maria Hieta.

The Mars 2020 mission is a part of NASA’s Mars exploration program. One of the main tasks of the Perseverance rover is to gather and store a series of rock and soil samples that can be brought back to Earth for analysis in the future. Finnish technology is scheduled to be launched to Mars again in 2022 aboard the ExoMars mission by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian space agency Roscosmos.

* Read-out coverage on the Perseverance project & Mars Explanation. 

@VaisalaSuomi, @VaisalaGroup @NASAPersevere @_Enviro_News #Astronautics #Automation #Mars

Red, hot and humid? Finding out!

NASA’s Perseverance rover, launched in July 2020, is scheduled to land on Mars on the 18th February 2021. The Perseverance is carrying several scientific instruments on board, including Finnish-made humidity and pressure instrumentation.

All eyes will be on the sky with the Perseverance rover as it lands on Thursday. 18th February 2021. The Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) has provided Perseverance with measurement instrumentation. Equipped with Vaisala’s sensors, FMI’s instrumentation will be used to provide accurate and reliable pressure and humidity measurements in the extreme conditions of Mars.* 

Pic: NASA

On a quest to find answers
Landing on Mars will be a thrilling moment. The true test of success, however, will be the entire mission as the rover operates in the Red Planet’s extreme conditions. Perseverance will spend at least one Mars year, equal to around two Earth years, exploring the landing-site area.

The rover is expected to land on the ancient river delta in Jezero Crater, which is the optimal place to find traces of ancient life. To collect data and samples from the Red Planet, NASA is working together with a group of trusted scientific partners.

The FMI’s instrumentation is part of the Spanish-led consortium’s Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA). The MEDA instrumentation kit is basically a Martian weather station that takes a wide range of atmospheric measurements: temperature, wind speed and direction, pressure, relative humidity, and the amount and size of dust particles. Vaisala’s pressure and humidity sensors onboard Perseverance are similar, but more advanced, to those sent to Mars on the Curiosity rover in 2012.

“The rover’s equipment needs to operate in the harsh Martian environment, with very low pressure conditions and cold temperatures, and it must be able to resist possible global dust storms. In addition to the environmental aspects and potential dangers of the landing itself, the distance between Mars and Earth makes the mission challenging. There is no one to fix the instrumentation if something goes wrong,” says Maria Genzer, Head of Planetary Research and Space Technology Group at FMI.

Meteorological observation network on another planet When landing, the Perseverance and Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity will operate around 2000 km from each other. Together they will help create a small-scale atmospheric observation network on Mars. This is the first step towards the wider observation network being planned for Mars in the future.

“Mars and Earth are like rocky sisters. They both have seasonal variation, ice caps, similar declination of axis, length of day, and rocky consistency. Mars offers us a basic model of Earth – without vegetation, water, human life, cities, and other ‘noise’ we encounter on Earth,” says Genzer. “Interplanetary atmospheric research offers us tools to better understand our current habitat, and who knows what other findings there might be.”

“We are excited to provide our world-leading sensor technology to a Mars mission once again. Our accurate and durable HUMICAP® and BAROCAP® sensors will enable high-quality humidity and pressure data even on the Red Planet and lay the foundations for the atmospheric observation network on Mars,” says Samuli Hänninen, Vice President of Vaisala’s Products and Technologies.

The Mars 2020 mission is part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program. The Perseverance rover is designed to better understand the environmental conditions and geology of Mars and seek signs of ancient life. The mission will collect and store a set of rock and soil samples that could be returned to Earth in the future.

@VaisalaSuomi, @VaisalaGroup @NASAPersevere @_Enviro_News #Astronautics #Automation

* Space-proof technology on Mars by Vaisala and FMI: Episode 1

---

See also: Taking a selfie on Mars with Perseverance! (17/11/2020)

Taking a selfie on Mars with Perseverance!

On July 30th, NASA successfully launched their Mars 2020 Perseverance rover mission, scheduled to land on the Red Planet on February 18th, 2021. The primary mission is to search for signs of ancient microscopic life and collect the first ever Martian soil samples to bring back to Earth. But the NASA team is also preparing this trip for another first: footage of a spacecraft landing on another planet. For the first-ever filming of a spacecraft landing, the engineers included 6 FLIR RGB machine vision cameras.

Perseverance mission on its way!

Previous Mars missions have taken still photos of the planetary descent, but no landing has ever been filmed. While everything about a space mission takes expert engineering, landing the rover is an especially high-stakes endeavor. The entire process of entry, descent, and landing takes only 7 minutes, during which a wrong move can leave the whole mission in flames.

Position of camera on spacecraft (Pic:NASA)

6 FLIR CMOS cameras will be taking high-definition video of the spacecraft during entry, descent, and landing activity (EDL, i.e. the “7 minutes of terror”). The cameras used for the Mars mission are from the FLIR Chameleon3 family, and include five 1.3-megapixel CMOS cameras and one 3.2-megapixel USB camera. Most people know FLIR for thermal imaging, but the Chameleon3 cameras are examples of our range of leading edge non-thermal industrial machine vision cameras.

Here’s how the landing (and filming) will go. Before entering the Martian atmosphere, the Perseverance will disconnect from the rocket stage, protected by a two-piece shell containing a parachute and a heat shield.

About 7 miles from the surface, the parachute will deploy (video). Just before this point, three parachute up-looking cameras will begin recording, capturing footage of the parachute inflating supersonically. 

Five miles off the ground, the heat shield will drop off and expose the rover down-look camera, which will start recording the rover’s progress as it’s lowered from the descent stage.

Then the rover will drop away from the back shell (and parachute). From there its descent will be managed by a rocket-powered descent stage called the “SkyCrane.” Another down-looking camera as well as an up-looking camera will start recording, and capture the moment the rover touches down on the surface and begins its historic mission.

The Curiosity rover had a similar ELD.

The 4 parachute and descent stage cameras will be jettisoned with the back shell and descent stage. The up and down-looking cameras on the rover will remain attached, but engineers don’t expect them to survive too long in the harsh temperature extremes of Mars (they were designed for life on Earth, sorry NASA!). But by that time, the unprecedented footage of spacecraft landing will have already been captured.

Though the cameras may not have been designed for operations in space, FLIR's dedication to quality on both camera manufacturing and process control gave NASA confidence that any samples they evaluated would be representative of the units which were actually flown. FLIR machine vision cameras are designed and tested to work 24/7 in challenging industrial situations, but we have never had the opportunity to test in scenarios with no gravity and temperatures of absolute zero. Thanks to NASA for providing the extraterrestrial test!

Getting the landing footage back to Earth might take several weeks. NASA expects to record about 25,000 images in total at frame rates ranging from 12 to 75 images per second, in a format similar to cell phone footage. Once it arrives, we will be able to watch the very first real footage of a spacecraft landing on Mars.

 This is what the descent should look like

@flir @NASAPersevere @mepaxIntPR #Aastronautics #camera

Looking at the first pictures after landing! (18 Feb 2021)