The consumable inside almost every ICP torch on the market.
Centennial, Colorado, USA. MAD Technology is the Southern African representative for Precision Glassblowing.
Founded by a master glassblower, still a craft business.
Precision Glassblowing was founded in 1982 by master glassblower Ken Petrie. Over four decades it has grown into a 24,000 sq ft facility in Centennial, Colorado, running roughly 25 lathes with around 20 glassblowers among a staff of 40–50 — a team the company describes as carrying over 400 years of combined glassblowing experience.
The business has added engineering capability around the core craft: in-house CNC mills, CO₂ lasers, an ultrasonic mill, grinding, an optics shop added in 2014 for in-house window production, and an independent QC department. The result is a manufacturer that can hand-work quartz and borosilicate to spectrometer-grade tolerances and verify it in-house before it ships.
Precision Glassblowing states that the majority of ICP torches on the market globally are manufactured by them, including as an approved OEM supplier to major instrument manufacturers. The same consumable inside a spectrometer manufacturer's own-brand torch may, in practice, be a Precision Glassblowing product.
At a glance.
| Founded | 1982, by master glassblower Ken Petrie |
| Headquarters | Centennial, Colorado, USA |
| Scale | Approx. 40–50 staff; approx. 20 glassblowers on approx. 25 lathes; 24,000 sq ft facility |
| Combined craft experience | Over 400 years, reported |
| In-house capabilities | CNC mills, CO₂ lasers, ultrasonic mill, grinding, optics shop (added 2014), independent QC department |
| MAD's territory | Southern Africa |
For every major spectrometer brand.
Torches
One-piece and demountable ICP and ICP-MS torches; quartz and alumina injectors, alumina used for HF work.
Nebulizers
Concentric glass nebulizers, robust and general purpose.
Spray Chambers
Including baffled cyclonic designs for improved droplet filtering.
Cones
Nickel and platinum sampler and skimmer cones.
Adapters & Pump Tubing
Adapters, connectors and peristaltic pump tubing.
Repair & Custom Glassware
ICP consumable repair services, plus custom borosilicate and quartz laboratory glassware.
Compatible brands include Agilent, Thermo Fisher, PerkinElmer, Shimadzu, Analytik Jena, Spectro and others.
Why this matters for every ICP lab in the country. Torches, nebulizers, spray chambers and injectors sit centimetres from a plasma at 6,000–10,000 °C while corrosive aerosol passes through continuously. They are wear items, replaced regularly, regardless of spectrometer brand.
The same part, sold independently and locally.
Every ICP-OES and ICP-MS in South Africa — of any brand, regardless of who sold it — consumes torches, nebulizers, spray chambers and injectors on a lifetime measured in months. Buying Precision Glassblowing through MAD is buying equivalent, often OEM-sourced, quality with the added benefit of local supply and a supplier who knows the South African market.
MAD's Precision Glassblowing range gives every ICP laboratory in the country a locally-supported alternative supply route — without needing to own a MAD-supplied spectrometer to qualify.
The consumables MAD supplies from Precision Glassblowing.
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