
Hi Dana,
Wonderful to meet you! You’re correct, we have quite a few Rudolph refractometers. We have had great experiences with them, and when my group’s ancient J257 lost its backlight we went straight for the J357 as a replacement without considering other manufacturers. I haven’t heard anything negative about our Rudolph refractometers thus far; every group uses their instrument heavily.
As far as what we do here, your understanding of specialty chemicals, resins, adhesives, coatings, and performance materials is correct. The lion’s share of our business goes into the wood product industry including particle board, MDF, and plywood. We use our refractometers to analyze in-process samples of our resins/adhesives as well as to collect properties on finished products.
Thank you for reaching out!
Best,
Cedar