65 Years in Gas Analysis Celebrated

MEECO, Inc. (USA), specialist manufacturers of electrolytic moisture analysers, pays tribute to its customers and team members, past and present, who have helped the company achieve over a half-century of success. Known for its innovative products, MEECO continues to grow and prosper in its 65th year.

Gustav Bergson, a Harvard-trained physicist, founded the company in 1948. He soon negotiated an arrangement with E.I. DuPont DeNemours to develop moisture analysers using electrolytic technology. MEECO—initially known as the Manufacturers Engineering and Equipment Co.—began building innovative instruments to measure trace moisture in solids, natural gas, and industrial specialty gases. In the natural gas industry, for example, MEECO helped assure compliant custody transfer and to protect pipelines from damage caused by moisture-induced corrosion and icing. The oil patch and the annual rodeo became favorite haunts for Dr. Bergson with his Hickey Freeman suits, homburg hat and cigar in hand.

In 1983, Lisa Bergson took over her father’s enterprise. She steered the company into global expansion and market diversification, without losing sight of the imperative to innovate. Beginning in 1985, the Pennsylvania company recorded at least a half-dozen “firsts,” including the first solar-powered portable moisture analyser (Sunsprite, 1985); the first moisture transducer (Accupoint, 1986); the first parts-per-billion trace moisture analyser (Turbo, 1987); the first single-digit parts-per-billion moisture analyser (Tracer, 1996); the first continuous wave cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CW-CRDS) analyser (MTO, 2001) and the first electrolytic “mini” moisture monitor (M-i, 2010).

Ever on the lookout for technological advances, MEECO championed the work of Kevin Lehmann, a chemistry professor at Princeton University in the 1990s, as he performed groundbreaking research in laser spectroscopy. In 1994, MEECO entered an agreement with Princeton to collaborate and to support Lehmann’s patent filings that ultimately led to the technology known as CW CRDS. Utilising Lehmann’s patents, MEECO developed the MTO and spun off Tiger Optics LLC in 2001 to take the first CW-CRDS product to market.

Ms. Bergson views MEECO as home and is very grateful to its customers and team for giving her the chance to offer innovative products that reduce drudgery, improve quality and help the environment.