About Us

Company History

A division of Alfa Wassermann, Inc., a provider of quality products and services to the health care community since 1960, Alfa Wassermann Separation Technologies (AWST) is a leading provider of continuous flow ultracentrifugation for process development and industrial scale manufacturing. AWST’s largest market is the bioprocess industry for the manufacture of vaccines and other bioproducts.

Started in 1969 under the name Electro-Nucleonics Inc. (ENI), AWST introduced the first Model K centrifuge that year. By 1991, the company joined the Alfa group of companies under the name of Schiapparelli Biosystems, and introduced the Super G rotor – extending the operational range from 35,000 rpm to 40,500 rpm and increasing the separating force by 34% to over 121,000 x g. The Smart Console was introduced in 1997 as a PC-based computer to provide greater control of the centrifuges and enable data handling to conform to industry standards for validation and traceability.

In 2001, the company name was consolidated to the parent business name of Alfa Wassermann. AWI has a 45-year history of providing quality products and services to the health care community. In addition to AWST, AWI’s subsidiaries include Alfa Wassermann Diagnostic Technologies, LLC (AWDT), which provides reliable and fully integrated clinical chemistry systems and reagents to laboratories in the clinical diagnostic and veterinary marketplace, as well as the life sciences market.

	1948 Alfa Wassermann founded in Bologna, Italy.

	1960 Electro-Nucleonics, Inc., (ENI) is founded to develop gas centrifuge technology.

	1969 Model K™ ultracentrifuge and GEMSAEC™, the first centrifugal clinical chemistry blood analyzer introduced by ENI.

	1974 Schiapparelli 1824, Italy's oldest pharmaceutical company, acquired by Alfa Wassermann.

	1982 GEMSTAR®, first profile analyzer for physicians' and veterinary office testing, introduced.

	1985 ENI receives license to market screening test for HTLV-III, the AIDS-linked virus.

	1989 ENI acquired by Pharmacia AB and renamed Pharmacia Diagnostics, Inc.

	1991 Pharmacia Diagnostics acquired by Schiapparelli 1824 and renamed Schiapparelli Biosystems Inc. (SBS).

	1993 ACE® clinical chemistry system, introduced incorporating CLIA'88 compliant features.

	1997 SMARTCONSOLE control system introduced for KII centrifuge technology.

	2000 SMARTSYSTEM PKII and KII introduced for ultracentrifuge applications.

	2001 Corporate name changed to Alfa Wassermann.

	2003 Creation of development unit for small scale ultracentrifugation technology.

	2007 Launch of AW Promatix 1000™ for developing protocols directly transferable to production.