About Us

Bellingham + Stanley, 100 years in the making

Bellingham + Stanley is part of Xylem Analytics and a leading provider of refractometers and polarimeters since 1914.

Xylem Analytics’ global brands have been leaders in the laboratory instrumentation market for decades, and are relied upon every day across more than 150 countries. Working in true partnership with our clients, we listen, learn and adapt to individual needs, offering deep application expertise built upon our long history of innovation in instruments and services. Our solutions for analysis, measurement and monitoring help enable many of today’s modern laboratories and industrial processes, and provide our customers the trusted and high performing solutions they need to succeed.

Xylem Analytics is part of Xylem Inc., a global company focused on solving the world’s most challenging and fundamental water issues. As accurate analysis is crucial to the water industry, Xylem Analytics taps its diverse product brands for leadership in that field and beyond, providing the best laboratory and field monitoring instrumentation across a wide variety of industries.

Technical Excellence

One hundred years ago Leonard Bellingham and Frank Stanley were pioneers in the development of high quality optical instruments. The company they founded is today one of the world’s leading manufacturers of refractometers and polarimeters.

At key stages in its history, Bellingham + Stanley achieved notable advances in the fields of refractometry and polarimetry, producing innovative designs and breakthroughs in technology that are used extensively around the world. This tradition of excellence and innovation continues today at the purpose-built manufacturing facility in Tunbridge Wells, United Kingdom and Sales & Service Centre in Atlanta, USA.

New designs continue to emerge and instruments are manufactured to the highest standards and exported to all parts of the world.

Production

The Production Department adopts a forward-looking philosophy and constantly strives to improve working practices and efficiency. The company is proud of its highly skilled workforce and the factory facilities in Tunbridge Wells is equipped with state-of-the-art machinery. Every instrument is individually inspected and a temperature-controlled test facility is dedicated to instrument calibration to ensure the highest possible accuracy. Best available packing materials ensure that instruments reach their destinations damage-free.

Research & Development

Rapidly changing technologies and more stringent demands of customers present an ongoing challenge. Bellingham + Stanley maintain a very active Research and Development Department to meet this challenge. While Bellingham + Stanley customers experience the capabilities and benefits of current models, R&D staff are actively working on the next generation and keeping abreast of developments in the science and technologies that underpin the instrument business. Instruments are designed from the outset to meet the latest international regulations.

Close co-operation with customers plays a vital role in the development process. A modern, well-equipped laboratory is dedicated to the evaluation of instruments under special conditions and for specific purposes. Customer samples are tested to demonstrate particular instrument performance. Sales staff are then able to offer qualified advice to customers and recommend the most suitable instrument and methodology for their application requirements.

Expert technical assistance is constantly available to ensure that customers achieve the highest possible performance from Bellingham + Stanley instruments.

Sales, Service and Calibration

Bellingham + Stanley is represented extensively all over the world. Outside the UK over 100 distributors have been appointed in countries in Europe, North America, South America, Africa, Middle East, Far East and Australasia. These companies are carefully selected and trained to provide technical advice on all products and to offer a local servicing facility to customers. This network of outlets is fully supported by experts in Tunbridge Wells and Atlanta, including regular overseas visits. The Company holds training courses for distributors covering the technology, products and servicing of instruments.

Bellingham + Stanley prides itself in offering a friendly and rapid-response technical advisory service to customers, which extends to sample testing. Technical Bulletins that explain the technologies, applications and technical problems in detail are available to all customers. The comprehensive Company Website provides a principal route to product information and related technology and is updated monthly.

Within the UK and USA Bellingham + Stanley Ltd. offer preventative maintenance programs either at the customer premises or at our dedicated service centres for customers that require regular servicing of equipment.

Calibration standards for refractometers and polarimeters are also available, some traceable to national standards such as NIST or PTB.

Ownership

Having been family owned for almost a Century, in 2007 Bellingham + Stanley was acquired by Nova Analytics to become a part of a larger group of companies including leading brands such as WTW, ebro electronic and the newly named SI Analytics, all servicing the world of Analysis.

In 2010, ITT Corporation acquired Nova Analytics. and integrated it as ITT Analytics. ITT Corporation was a high-technology engineering and manufacturing company operating on all seven continents in three vital markets: water and fluids management, global defense and security, and motion and flow control.

On 31st October 2011 ITT corp. split into three companies, with Bellingham + Stanley playing an important role in water business, Xylem Inc.

In 2023, as part of Xylem’s Laboratory Solutions division (and in order to satisfy the growing demand for our refractometers and polarimeters from across the globe) production of instrumentation was moved to a newly built, technologically advanced and environmentally friendly site in Weilheim, Germany.