Corporate Retrospective 2007: Polymicro

Polymicro Technologies, LLC, Phoenix, Arizona, has been manufacturing capillary tubing for GC since the company was formed in 1984 as a spin-off of the Raychem Corporation. Through innovation, quality, and performance, the company has grown to be the market's premier source of polyimide coated flexible fused silica capillary tubing used in GC columns. Our products also find widespread usage in LC, CE, MS, and other related analytical instrumentation technologies. In 1994, Polymicro moved into its present state-of-the-art facility, which offered expanded production capacity through the addition of multiple drawing towers. In our continuing effort to meet customer demands and industry compliance requirements, Polymicro became ISO 9001:2000 certified in 2004 and will bring a new clean room production area on line in 2007.

Polymicro has demonstrated leadership in the chromatography market for over two decades by continually focusing on product quality and performance. The original product offering focused on GC tubing. Currently, the standard product offering totals more than 50 different capillary products and encompasses tubing i.d. ranging from 2 μm up to 750 μm. Both i.d. and o.d tolerances have been continuously tightened and average spool lengths have markedly increased as manufacturing processes have been optimized. Researchers around the world turn to Polymicro for custom, tight tolerance capillary products. This is often coupled with our value-added assembly, windowing, precision cleaving, or laser cutting capabilities.

Polymicro has several key milestones to its credit. In 2003, the company received an IR 100 award for its contribution to a novel microwave absorbing GC column technology. That same year, Polymicro was the only U.S. company to receive both the prestigious Crystal and Gold awards from the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). The awards recognized contributions made to constructing the world's largest Compact Muon Solenoid detector used for the identification and study of the Higgs boson. Polymicro played a critical role in the historic Human Genome Project by supplying the majority of the capillary used in DNA sequencing instrumentation.

From our early roots in GC through the Human Genome Project and beyond, our company's proven commitment as the leader in capillary tubing, when coupled with our steadfast pursuit of innovation, will enable both Polymicro and its many business partners to share a bright future together.

Joe Macomber

Joe Macomber

Separation Science Manager

Polymicro Technologies, LLC