Beckman Coulter - manufacturer of laboratory instruments and clenical diagnostics specialist

Beckman Coulter, Inc. is the product of two companies recognized for long traditions of innovation. Beckman Instruments, Inc. and Coulter Corporation. The company, which was formed by Beckman's acquisition of Coulter in October 1997, offers one of the most comprehensive portfolios of laboratory instruments and supplies to span the technological continuum, from bioresearch to clinical diagnostics and cellular analysis.

Beckman Coulter is in the business of "Innovating Processes for Biomedical analysis." In addition to meeting customer needs with high quality, state-of-the-art instrument systems, the company develops collaborative relationships to help customers to identify ways to maximize the efficiency of those systems in their processes. This is referred to as "The Power of Process."

In the Patient Care testing market, Beckman Coulter customers are hospital laboratories, commercial laboratories, physicians' offices and group practices. These customer groups are supported with laboratory automation systems, clinical chemistry systems, blood cell analysis systems, immunochemistry systems, centrifuges, rapid-test kits, reagents and quality control chemistries.
In the R&D Testing and Translational Solutions markets, Beckman Coulter customers include biotechnology firms, pharmaceutical companies, research institutions and universities. The efficiency and productivity of these researchers is greatly enhanced by Beckman Coulter centrifuges and rotors, capillary electrophoresis systems, protein purification systems, DNA synthesizers and sequencers, biorobotics workstations, flow cytometry systems, high-performance liquid chromatographs, scintillation systems, spectrophotometers, particle analysis systems, laboratory automation systems and software.

Both Beckman and Coulter have rich traditions of inventive genius. Beckman's founder, Dr. Arnold O. Beckman, was driven by a desire to speed analytical processes in the laboratory. His invention, the acidimeter, known today as the pH meter, made pH measurement fast and accurate and spurred the formation of Beckman Instruments, Inc. Dr. Beckman was a strong advocate for the advancement of science.

Similarly, Wallace Coulter discovered the Coulter Principle, an electronic, automatic way of counting and measuring the size of microscopic particles. This led Wallace and his brother, Joseph, to develop the COULTER COUNTER®, the first commercial blood cell counter, and the instrument that marked the beginning of the field of hematology.
Beckman Coulter employs more than 10,000 people throughout the world and has more than 200,000 instrument systems in place in 130 countries on five continents. Annual sales totaled $2.2 billion in 2003.