News 
After celebrating its four decades of existence in 2017, Laboratoire Dubois is treating itself to an extension of 220sqm, mainly dedicated to chemical analysis. This new space was inaugurated on July 5th in the presence of local and cantonal authorities, the watch industry and the press.
Since its creation, Laboratoire Dubois has continued to expand its fields of research. As these activities required ever more space, the institution’s management decided to add a floor to the Alexis-Marie-Piaget Street building instead of relocating. The work took more than a year to complete, resulting in bright and spacious premises where all the activity grouping the chemical analyses has been united, such as liquid chromatography, metal analysis or gas chromatography. Nine people, including an apprentice, have been working there daily since last April.
Particular attention has been paid to the energy aspect of the construction, which includes a heat recovery system for the extracted air, as well as a solar photovoltaic installation with a nominal power of 13kW which supplies the needs of the laboratory.
The chemistry laboratory has also acquired new equipment that allows it to further expand its field of activities. These include an ICP-MS device, which can detect minute quantities of metals, an HPLC-MS system dedicated to the identification and quantification of organic molecules, and a total organic carbon analyser (TOC), which is used in the search for organic contaminants, such as on medical implants.
Major method validation efforts have also been undertaken, mainly as part of the regulatory compliance control of common objects. All these investments have been rewarded through the recognition, by the Swiss Accreditation Service (SAS), of the capacity of Laboratoire Dubois to carry out numerous analyses in very varied fields. Witness the control and extension audit successfully conducted by the SAS at the end of June.
Now equipped with this extension, which not only aims to provide new premises suitable for chemical analyses, but also, in the long term, to enable each department to benefit from larger spaces, the Dubois Laboratory is even better able to meet the expectations of the watchmaking branch, as well as those of the electronic, aerospace or archaeological fields it also serves.
August 23, 2018