Project ’71: Celebrating Over 50 Years of Innovation

Join Us As We Celebrate 50+ Years of Innovation!

In 2021, we set out to recognize the past 50 years of unique achievements and honor the journey our company has traveled through each passing decade.

But how do you explore a 50-year history in a way that invites people to participate – and also gives back to the community that’s enabled us to grow?

Enter Project ’71.

50 years ago, Hinds Instruments was founded and thus began the start of an incredible journey. For a company to survive and thrive for 50 years is no small feat. It’s also a complicated story to tell. We decided it would help if we had a vehicle to explore and tell our story. So we purchased a 1971 Corvette. This vehicle rolled off the factory floor the same year our company was born. Outrageous? Yes. And also the perfect vehicle to tell our story.

We invite you to join us on our journey.

 

Performance Matters

Hinds Instruments operates as a test and measurement company in the photonics business. Naturally, we’re interested in the performance and maintenance of our equipment. This includes our “new to us” 1971 Corvette. This is a vehicle we acquired to help us explore what it means to be a 50-year old company in the technology business. As time permits, we’ll share our experience testing, measuring, understanding, and appreciating this iconic vehicle.

Get A Quote for Systems & Components

Working together, we can discuss the suitability of our technology for your application, including a custom configuration of our base systems if needed.

Giving Back

Once our Anniversary celebration is over, we’ll sell the car at auction, and then donate the proceeds to charities that honor our founder’s commitment to the education and development of scientists and engineers. In strategic terms which might be familiar to many of our customers, you might think about this as a positive feedback loop. We already have a few charities targeted. We’ll talk more about them throughout our journey.

LET’S CELEBRATE!

Throughout the year, we’ll be looking for unique opportunities to connect with our employees, vendors, and other partners to celebrate our rich history of 50 years in business.

Not many companies make it this long. Those who do are indebted to their loyal employees, past and present. At the very least, you’d have to describe these companies as Survivors. With this in mind, we have committed to send all of our employees – past and present – a quality survival tool made by another well-known Oregon company, Leatherman Tool Group, Inc. It’s a small “thank you” for helping us survive – and succeed.

If you were an employee for one year or more, please contact us and we’ll send you a custom-engraved Hinds Instruments 50th Anniversary survival tool.

Featured Universities

Engineering School Visit:
Abilene Christian University

Engineering School Visit:
Colorado School of Mines

Engineering School Visit:
Oklahoma Christian University

50-Year Timeline

1971

Hinds International, Inc. founded by Gene W. Hinds as an export management company.

1972

Foreign sales rights to photo-elastic modulator (PEM) from Dr. James C. Kemp, PhD.

Read More

1976

Global manufacturing and sales rights to PEM.

Read More

1979

Foreign sales rights to Capricorn™ Weather Station.

Read More

1981

Global manufacturing and sales rights to Capricorn™ Weather Station.

Read More

1986

OEM PEM for semiconductor lithography

Read More

1992

Began operating as Hinds Instruments, Inc.

1998

Nader Khoury tapped to lead wholly-owned subsidiary Columbia Weather Systems.

Read More

1999

Exicor® Birefringence Measurement System, PEM-based tool to measure birefringence in optical materials.

Read More

2001

R&D100 Award for Exicor® Low-level Birefringence Measurement System

Read More

2001

Exicor® MT Series Birefringence Measurement System for inline measurement of LCD glass.

Read More

2003

R&D100 Award for Exicor® DUV Low Level Birefringence Measurement System, with International SEMATECH.

Read More

2005

Exicor® GEN Series Birefringence Measurement System, for offline measurement of LCD glass.

Read More

2006

Exicor® Research Grade Stokes Polarimeter, to measure the polarization of light.

Read More

2008

R&D100 Award, 2-MGEM System to measure TRISO nuclear fuel, with Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

Read More

2010

Exicor® OIA Series Birefringence Measurement System for semiconductor lens measurement.

Read More

2012

NSF GOALI Award, with NYU, 4-PEM Polarimeter to measure Mueller Matrix

Read More

2013

R&D100 Award, Exicor® XT Research Grade Mueller Polarimeter, with NYU.

Read More

2014

Exicor® MicroImager, PEM-based polarization imaging.

Read More

2014

Columbia Weather Systems spun off to independent company.

Read More

2015

Introduced Exicor® CD Reader for high-throughput chirality screening.

Read More

2017

PolSnap™ Stokes Polarimeter, affordable polarization of light.

Read More

2019

PEM200, with digitally-controlled modulation.

Read More

2020

With JPL, 2-decade collaboration puts PEMs in space.

Read More

2021

PEM200SD with integrated signal detection - Coming Soon

Download PDF Version