July 2022 marks the 75th anniversary of one of the UK’s longest established scientific and medical equipment manufacturers, LTE Scientific.
LTE originated in 1947 as Laboratory Thermal Equipment, manufacturing a range of laboratory ovens, incubators and water baths. Many scientists will probably still remember the cream, round cornered ovens and incubators which were a common sight in most laboratories over many decades, a number of which are still working to this day.
Product development in the 50s and 60s saw LTE begin to produce the MAFF biological safety cabinet, specialist pharmaceutical sterilising ovens and even baby incubators. From the 60s to the 80s, LTE was part of the Baird and Tatlock Group (B&T), which comprised of many equipment manufacturers serving all areas of the life science market. It was during this time, in the early 70s that LTE started manufacturing laboratory autoclaves as well as the AF range pf Karl Fisher titrators.
In 1987, the Baird and Tatlock Group was disbanded and LTE was bought by Harvard Bioscience, and for a few years was known as Harvard/LTE. Five years later, in 1992, LTE returned to private ownership and became known as LTE Scientific Ltd. Since that time, LTE has continued to develop its product ranges, specialising in its core areas of steam sterilisation, infection prevention, thermal processing equipment and stability test chambers/rooms.
Remaining faithful to its origins, LTE still manufactures a wide range of ovens, incubators and drying cabinets. LTE has also established itself as a leading laboratory autoclave and medical steriliser manufacturer with its flagship Touchclave autoclave range. Launched in 2004 the Touchclave range is a familiar product that can be found in laboratories and sterile service departments worldwide.
2007 saw LTE enter the endoscopy sector with the launch of their Scope-Store endoscope drying and storage cabinets. These specialist cabinets can maintain an endoscope’s post-processing conditions for up to 30 days.
Being an established manufacturer, LTE can also modify its core products and offer bespoke solutions to meet customer-specific requirements, this being particularly important with environmentally controlled stability testing rooms, which require tailoring for each individual installation.
LTE has also earned a strong reputation in the market for its after-sales service centre, which currently employs 14 engineers Nationwide to carry out a wide range of service contracts, maintenance visits and validation testing across its entire product range, along with many of the major brands available in the UK.
Over the years, LTE has seen continuous growth and looking to the future LTE have exciting plans in place, including new product development, staff growth and a keen focus on providing reliable and efficient products and after-sales care in the sterilisation, infection prevention and thermal processing sectors of the life science and medical industries.
