Barringer Instruments

Barringer Instruments was founded in 1961 and was initially focused on the geophysical market place for detection and survey instrumentation that helped in the exploration for oil and valuable minerals.  Over the years, Barringer broadened to include instrumentation for nuclear power plants and in the late 1980s turned it attention mainly to narcotics and explosives detection using Ion Mobility Spectrometry (IMS). 

During the 1990s Barringer became a world leader in trace detection instruments for drugs and explosives detection, providing equipment to over 50 countries with thousands of units deployed worldwide.  In 2000, Barringer began marketing IMS technology to the Life Sciences market and pharmaceutical manufacturers, offering a faster and more accurate process for cleaning validation, raw material identification, quality control and dissolution testing. 

In April 2001 Smiths acquired Barringer and the following year the Toronto, Canada-based unit, with a facility in New Jersey, supplied the majority of explosives detection units required by the Transport Security Administration to enhance aviation security.