Beckman Licenses Firm to Sell, Service Device

Beckman Instruments, continuing to distance itself from the industrial market, has licensed a Sunland company to sell and service one of its test instruments--a plasma emission device used to identify trace quantities of various elements. The device produces from $10 million to $12 million in annual revenue for Beckman, a company spokesman said.

Financial details of the licensing agreement with Applied Research Laboratories were not disclosed. But the Beckman spokesman said the Fullerton company, a subsidiary of SmithKline Beckman Corp., will continue manufacturing the devices while ARL will be responsible for sales, marketing and service. About 25 Beckman employees involved in marketing the plasma emission devices nationally are expected to transfer to Applied Research Laboratories.

Beckman decided to give up the bulk of the revenue from the plasma emission product because the device is used mainly in the metals and cement industries and “a lot of places that are not in keeping with our focus on the life sciences,” the Beckman spokesman said.