CEDAR PARK, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Mar 5, 2026--
Applied Rigaku Technologies, a division of Rigaku group (Headquarters: Akishima, Tokyo; CEO: Jun Kawakami), announces the release of its NEX QC II Series benchtop X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analyzers at Pittcon 2026, held March 7–11 in San Antonio, Texas, USA. Pittcon is one of the world’s premier conferences for laboratory science and analytical instrumentation.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260305097711/en/
The NEX QC II Series is a second-generation line of energy dispersive XRF (EDXRF) analyzers built on the proven NEX QC platform. Designed specifically for industrial quality control, the systems deliver fast, reliable elemental analysis with minimal operator training. They are well suited for plant floors, manufacturing lines, QC laboratories, and field use.
The NEX QC II Series introduces several enhancements for industrial users, including:
The new series includes two models, the NEX QC II and the NEX QC II+, allowing users to select the performance level that best suits their analytical requirements and budget. The NEX QC II+ features an upgraded detector configuration that improves resolution and light-element performance. This model supports more demanding applications while maintaining the same ease of use as the standard model.
Designed for low maintenance and long service life, the NEX QC II Series uses low-power X-ray tubes and minimal consumables to reduce downtime and operating costs. Additionally, flexible data handling options, including USB export, network connectivity, and an embedded printer, support audits, compliance, and routine reporting.
“This second-generation NEX QC II Series was developed for real-world industrial environments,” said Robert Bartek, President of Applied Rigaku Technologies. “We’ve delivered higher analytical performance in a smaller footprint while maintaining the rugged industrial design and straightforward operation our customers depend on for consistent, day-to-day production use.”
The NEX QC II Series supports a broad range of industrial applications, including petroleum and fuel analysis (such as sulfur in fuels and metals in crude oils), coatings and surface treatments, wood preservatives, and recycled materials such as RDF and used oils. The analyzers accommodate solids, liquids, powders, and thin films, supporting both laboratory and at-line quality control.
The NEX QC II model will be on display at booth #1221 during Pittcon 2026. Attendees are invited to learn more about the new analyzers and how they support efficient, consistent industrial QC. Additional information is available at www.rigakuedxrf.com.
About the Rigaku Group
Since its establishment in 1951, the engineering professionals of the Rigaku group have been dedicated to benefiting society with leading-edge technologies, notably including its core fields of X-ray and thermal analysis. With a market presence in 136 countries and regions and some 2,000 employees from 9 global operations, Rigaku is a solution partner in industry and research analysis institutes. Our overseas sales ratio has reached approximately 70% while sustaining an exceptionally high market share in Japan. Together with our customers, we continue to develop and grow. As applications expand from semiconductors, electronic materials, batteries, environment, resources, energy, life science to other high-tech fields, Rigaku realizes innovations “To Improve Our World by Powering New Perspectives.”
For details, please visit: rigaku-holdings.com/english
About Applied Rigaku Technologies
Applied Rigaku Technologies designs, manufactures, and distributes Rigaku EDXRF products worldwide. The company provides elemental analysis solutions for industrial, environmental, and research applications, combining advanced technology with practical designs tailored for real-world operating environments. For more information, visit www.rigakuedxrf.com.
NEX QC II touchscreen
NEX QC II
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — For years, Iran's theocratic government warned it would blanket the Middle East with missile and drone fire if it felt its existence was threatened.
Now, the Islamic Republic is doing just that.
Since the U.S. and Israel launched the war Saturday and killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran has unleashed thousands of drones and ballistic missiles targeting Israel, American military bases and embassies in the region, and energy facilities across the Persian Gulf. Iranian fire has even been directed over its borders with Turkey and Azerbaijan.
Iran's basic strategy is to instill fear about the dangers of a widening war in hopes that allies of the U.S. will apply enough pressure to halt their campaign. A protracted conflict, along with American and Israeli casualties, could also work in Iran’s favor.
But the barrage-thy-neighbors strategy also could backfire.
Iran’s first priority is to emerge from the war with its state institutions intact, said Ellie Geranmayeh, deputy director of the Middle East and North Africa program at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
“Iran is upping the costs for this U.S. military campaign and regionalizing it from the get-go, as they promised they would if America restarts the war again with Iran,” she said. The U.S. joined Israel last June in a 12-day war, targeting nuclear enrichment sites. Iran maintains its program is peaceful, though its officials had threatened to pursue a bomb while enriching uranium to near-weapons-grade levels.
Iran's leaders believe that by inflicting casualties and disrupting energy production to drive up oil and gas prices, America's allies or an unsettled public back home will pressure U.S. President Donald Trump to ease back.
“The Iranians are banking on basically out-stomaching him, and exhausting him and his allies to the point where they would basically have a diplomatic off-ramp,” Geranmayeh said. Trump is unpredictable, Geranmayeh said, but for now he appears to be pressing for “unconditional surrender to his demands, rather than a negotiated settlement.”
The U.S. and Israel have carried out hundreds of airstrikes and inflicted heavy damage on Iranian government, military and nuclear targets. Despite being greatly outgunned, Iran has continued to fire ballistic missiles into Israel, killing 11 people and disrupting life for millions of Israelis. More have been killed in the Gulf Arab states, and the U.S.-Israeli campaign has killed 1,045 people in Iran.
After more than two years of war in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli public appears to have little appetite for another lengthy round of fighting. Polls suggest the U.S. public is leery of a protracted conflict.
The American and Israeli onslaught came after failed U.S.-Iranian talks over Iran's nuclear program and the West's sanctions.
Trump said Monday his four objectives were to destroy Iran’s missile capabilities, wipe out its navy, prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon and ensure that it cannot continue to support allied armed groups.
The Iranian response has spared no one in the region — not even Oman, which mediated the latest round of nuclear talks and for decades has maintained a close relationship to Iran. In the 1970s, Iran's shah helped the late Sultan Qaboos bin Said put down a rebellion.
But now Oman has been dragged into the conflict. An Omani port and ships off its coast have been targeted by Iranian missiles. Oman's port at Duqm helped the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier with pre-deployment logistics.
Saudi Arabia, which has maintained a detente with Tehran since 2023, also came in the crosshairs this week. Its Ras Tanura oil refinery has been repeatedly attacked and the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh got hit by drones — an embarrassing moment for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has worked to cultivate a close relationship with Trump.
Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, which also have close ties to Trump, have been repeatedly targeted, too.
There’s a grim math equation at play as the war goes on. Iran has a finite number of missiles and drones, just as the Gulf Arab states, the U.S. and Israel all have a limited number of interceptor missiles capable of downing the incoming fire.
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday that thousands of Iranian missiles and drones have been “intercepted and vaporized” during the war. The Israeli military says it has destroyed dozens of missile launchers.
From the American and Israeli side, targeting missiles and their launchers remains key. Both countries had to shoot down Iranian missiles during the war in June and multiple times in the Israel-Hamas war.
“In simple terms, we are focused on shooting all the things that can shoot at us,” said U.S. Navy Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of the American military’s Central Command.
A senior Western official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters, said Iran has several days’ worth of ballistic missiles if it continues firing at current rates, but it may hold some back to wage a longer campaign.
The Israeli military says there have been far fewer Iranian missiles launched in recent days as a result of the airstrikes — though warning sirens often wailed across Israel on Wednesday into Thursday.
Iran's strategy of trying to threaten energy security, drive a wedge between Gulf and Western states and raise costs is “backfiring,” said Hasan Alhasan, a Middle East expert with the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.
“It’s driving and pushing the Gulf states into closer alignment with the United States,” he said.
“The Gulf states can’t simply sit idle and continue absorbing indefinite attacks to their critical infrastructure and to civilians in Gulf cities,” Alhasan said. They are probably trying to both acquire more weapons to intercept incoming fire and find ways to broker an end to the war, he said.
Iran’s foreign minister has suggested his country’s military units are now isolated and acting independently from any central government control, a possible excuse for Iran’s increasingly erratic fire.
“They are acting based on instructions — you know, general instructions — given to them in advance,” Abbas Araghchi told Al Jazeera on Sunday.
But after a Wednesday phone call with Araghchi, Qatar's prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, “categorically rejected” his assertion that Iranian missiles were only directed at American interests and not intended to target Qatar.
Keaten reported from Geneva. Associated Press writers Danica Kirka and Jill Lawless in London contributed to this report.
Debris cover the site of Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV headquarters after it was hit in an Israeli airstrike on Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
A cleric leads a group of volunteers in prayer next to a police facility struck during the U.S.–Israeli military campaign in Tehran, Iran, Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Large fire and plume of smoke is visible after, according to the authorities, debris of an Iranian intercepted drone hit the Fujairah oil facility, in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Altaf Qadri)
Officers from Israel's Home Front Command inspect a damaged apartment building after an Iranian missile strike in Petah Tikva, Israel, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
