1930's		Harshaw Chemical staff in 1930
Harshaw Chemical Company, in the U.S., is the first major manufacturer to develop and produce scintillation crystals.
1940's
Quartz & Silice, a subsidiary of Saint-Gobain in France, begins production of optical crystals and scintillation crystals.

1950's		The Beenham main building in England, circe 1960
Isotope Developments founded in the UK in 1950, by a team of scientists from Harwell, to design and manufacture radiation measurement equipment on what is now our site near Reading, England. Baldwin Instruments also in the UK, produce the first Farmer dosimeters, whose descendants are still producing by our group. SE Laboratories is founded to produced pressure transducers for the aerospace industry.

1960's
The original Purification Department at Bicron, Newbury, Ohio		In the late 1960s, Isotope Developments was consolidated with a number of other small UK nucleonics companies, established in the 50’s and 60’s, to form Nuclear Enterprises. These other companies included Nuclear Enterprises (Edinburgh, Scotland), Ekco Instruments, Baldwin Instruments and EMI (Wells). In 1969 Bicron Corporation is established in the US and begins production of NaI(Tl) scintillation ingots.

1980's

In 1980, two 26” diameter furnaces are added at Bicron, and the first G-style production unit is produced. The following year, the Electronics and Organics groups are established within Bicron. Many materials production advances are made including the 19” x 19” NaI(Tl) spectrometer, the first unsegmented 4 meter long plastic scintillator and the “plastic ball” detector array. In 1981, Nuclear Enterprises launches the lPM7 – the first whole body contamination monitor to incorporate statistical analysis, using microprocessors. In 1987, a management buyout of Nuclear Enterprises took place, resulting in the creation of NE Technology Ltd. NE Technology continued to acquire other businesses, including the aerospace transducer business in 1989. Also in 1989, Nippon Bicron is established as a trading company to serve the Japanese detector market.

1990

Saint-Gobain purchases Bicron Corporation and the Crystals and Detectors Division of Engelhard (which sold TLD products under the brand name “Harshaw”.)

1991

NE Technology purchases Vinten Analytical Systems, manufacturers of TLD equipment.

1992

Crismatec-Grenoble is acquired by Saint-Gobain. Crismatec becomes the new name for the Quartz & Silice entity.

1993

Bicron becomes the entity name for the Solon and Newbury, Ohio plants.

1995

NE Technology Ltd. is acquired by Saint-Gobain, and eventually merged into the Bicron-NE business unit, under the new name of Bicron-NE.

1997 A production facility is opened in Bangalore, India: Bicron Products Private Limited (BPPL). 1998 Integrated Detector Solutions, a strategic alliance with Innova Electronics, to produce an integrated geoline detector package.

Manufacturing facility in Bangalore, India.

1999

In the U.S, Bicron acquires the Crystal Products Division of Union Carbide, TGM Detectors and Gamma Laboratories. In the UK, the group acquires Mini-Instruments and Morganite Electronic Instrumentation (MEI).

2000

All of the above mentioned businesses are brought together under the new business name of Saint-Gobain Crystals & Detectors – reflecting the unity of purpose and strong inter-site links of the component businesses.