The Company

s::can was founded by Andreas Weingartner and 4 co-founders as a University spin-off in 1999 and is based in Vienna, Austria. In 2020 Badger Meter,(Opens in a new tab or window) a global provider of industry leading water solutions encompassing flow measurement, quality and other system parameters, acquired s::can. An s::can management team, consisting of 4 experienced s::can managers, now leads the company together with Badger Meter to further growth and success. Just as in our logo with the four dots, these four represent different areas of expertise and experience.

With sales offices in six countries and sales partners around the world, s::can water quality monitoring systems are available in more than 50 countries. The innovative company is serving the whole water industry, from drinking water to environmental to wastewater. Today, with over 10,000 systems sold, s::can is the global leader in online optical water monitoring systems.

Main markets: s::can is a global player with more than 97% export share. s::can sensors and terminals are distributed in over 50 countries to the private and the municipal water industry. A growing business segment is the OEM business.

Product focus: The company´s product focus is the design and manufacture of a full range of innovative, simple, easy to use, digital sensors for on-line water quality measurement.

As well as the design and manufacture of terminals, systems and software for trend setting visualization, user interface, anomaly detection, and controls.

The full range online: s::can offers a complete set of accurate, reliable, low-maintenance and inexpensive measuring instruments for comprehensive and time–resolved water quality monitoring. We consider online water quality monitoring the essential basis for the monitoring of any natural water bodies and for the economically and ecologically optimised operation of waste water treatment plants, drinking water works and industrial plants. Such monitoring and optimisation can help to minimise the emission of pollution and hazardous substances into the environment thus helping to secure optimum water quality for human consumption at best possible economic efficiency.

Simply measure with light – an idea conquers the world: Monitoring water quality on a large scale and in real time – the s::can founders, headed by Andreas Weingartner, laid the foundation for this vision in the year 1999 by developing the spectrometer probe.

A beam of light is sent through a sample of water and measuring the absorption, a detector can determine a number of water quality parameters without using any chemicals. Measuring water quality this way is not only faster and easier, but also more affordable. Today, the Austrian company is a world market leader in this segment and the products are used in numerous water works, waste water treatment plants, industrial applications, and for environmental monitoring.

The s::can spectrometer instruments are fully capable spectrometers in the shape of a probe. In the measuring section, which is positioned between emitting and receiving units, the emitted light passes through the medium to be analysed. Substances present in the medium lo-cated between the measuring windows of the probe absorb visible and UV light.

Internally a second light beam is guided across a comparison pathway. This two beam setup makes it possible to compensate, with each single measurement, any instrumental effects that could influence the quality of the measurement (e.g. ageing of the light source).

Fingerprint: s::can spectrometer probes record the complete absorbance spectrum between 190 and 750 nm (UV-Vis) or 190 – 390 nm (UV) resolving it into 256 wavelengths – the result is the “Fingerprint”. Using the information contained in the fingerprint it is possible to monitor multiple parameters simultaneously and at the same time compensate these parameters for possible cross-sensitivities. The correlation with laboratory results reaches a quality that was unknown from the previously used simple optical instruments.

Global Calibration: Global Calibrations calculate the concentrations of multiple parameters from the Fingerprint and are available as application specific factory settings. Through the Global Calibrations each user benefits from many years of experience in applications similar to his own – in most cases no local calibration on site is required. s::can spectrometer probes use no replaceable parts or consumables. Therefore, when operated properly there will be no costs for spare parts at all. Its unrivalled measurement features in combination with the lowest possible total costs – initial cost and foreseeable operational costs – make the s::can spectrometer probe the most attractive solution available today.

High quality intelligent products: Innovation is a core company goal and the most important tool to maintain and expand the technological advantage in the market. Whether it is a simple sensor or a spectrometer probe – all s::can measuring systems are equipped with intelligence from own development laboratories.

With a smart mix of software, hardware and algorithms, s::can has achieved a technological edge to secure and expand its dominant position in the world market. By investing more than 15% of its expenditures on research and development, s::can is continuously developing new technologies and is focusing on the core brand values: simple design and affordability. Made in Austria.