About Us
About MachinedQuartz — AIREKA Scientific, Hong Kong Quartz Cuvette Fabrication Since 2013
About MachinedQuartz · AIREKA Scientific
Quartz cuvette and optics fabrication for spectroscopy labs and OEMs.
Since AIREKA Scientific registered in Hong Kong in 2013, we have fabricated optical-grade quartz cuvettes, capillaries, windows, and custom cells for spectroscopy labs, OEM instrument makers, and research teams in over 30 countries. Standard 80, Sintered 80/83, and Molded 83 fabrication methods. Quartz machining, polishing, sealing, and QC — all in our own production line.
12+Years in business
1,300+Stock SKUs
30+Countries served
2-4Pcs MOQ custom
Section 1 · Our Story
Quartz cuvette fabrication — built around what spectroscopists actually order
Most cuvettes on the lab supply market pass through three or four resellers between the fabrication line and the customer’s bench. We started AIREKA Scientific in 2013 to remove every layer in that chain.
Where we came from
MachinedQuartz was founded in 2013 in Hong Kong by a team with years of quartz machining and optical fabrication experience. We watched the standard market chain — Asian fabrication mills, Japanese or European distributors, lab supply catalogs, finally the working scientist — strip 3–4× margin and almost all technical detail out of every cuvette. Scientists were paying premium prices for cells with no one available to answer questions about path tolerance, fabrication method, or material grade.
AIREKA Scientific (HK) was registered in 2013 to fix this. We built our own quartz machining and cuvette fabrication line — Standard 80 glued cells, Sintered 80/83 cells for solvents and acids, Molded 83 cells for high-temperature sealed work. The customer talks directly to the people machining, polishing, and inspecting the cells they are buying.
How we are different
The decisions a fabrication shop makes are different from the decisions a generalist reseller makes. We use JGS1 synthetic quartz as our default — not the cheaper JGS2 grade most catalogs ship — because at our production scale the cost gap closes and the customer gets a cell that covers both deep UV and standard UV-Vis in one purchase. We fabricate Sintered 80/83 and Molded 83 cells alongside Standard 80, so the customer can match fabrication method to chemistry rather than fight a glued cell with hot solvents.
Most of our writing on this site — the material guide, the instrument compatibility reference, the UV-Vis pillar — reflects that fabrication-floor view. The articles are not marketing wrappers; they are working documents our own machining and QC teams use internally.
Section 2 · Milestones
A short history of MachinedQuartz
Twelve years of building one thing carefully. Here are the moments that mattered.
2013
AIREKA Scientific registered in Hong Kong
Founded with one focused mandate: factory-direct quartz cuvettes for spectroscopy, without the reseller chain that defined the existing market.
2015
JGS1 + JGS3 product line standardized
Internal decision to stock only JGS1 synthetic deep-UV and JGS3 IR-optimized grades. JGS2 dropped as redundant — JGS1’s 185 nm range covers it at our scale.
2017
Sintered 80 / Sintered 83 / Molded 83 capability
Expanded fabrication beyond glued Standard 80 cells to cover solvents, acids, and high-temperature work. The four-method matrix is still our differentiator.
2020
OEM and bulk orders cross 50% of revenue
Instrument makers, biotech, semiconductor metrology customers became a major share. Lot-controlled production, branded packaging, and recurring schedules became standard.
2024
1,300+ stock SKUs, 30+ countries
Hong Kong warehouse holds the broadest single-supplier cuvette catalog. FedEx direct-to-lab shipping with duty-free terms to most destinations.
2026
Resources hub published
Material guide, instrument compatibility, UV-Vis pillar, Beer-Lambert, troubleshooting — open to read for free. We treat technical literacy as part of the product.
Section 2.5 · The Problem We Saw
Why we built our own fabrication line
A 10 mm quartz cuvette costs roughly $18 in raw fabrication labor and material. By the time it reaches the working scientist’s bench through a standard lab catalog, the typical price is $70–95. Most of that gap is markup chain, not added value. We do the fabrication ourselves and ship direct.
“We started AIREKA because the math made no sense — $18 to fabricate a cell, $95 to buy one from a lab catalog, and no one in between who could answer a technical question. So we built our own fabrication line and skipped the middle.”
Founding team note · MachinedQuartz / AIREKA Scientific
Section 3 · What We Make
Manufacturing capabilities
Nine categories of optical-grade quartz product, fabricated in our Hong Kong production line. Machining, optical polishing, joint sealing, masking, and inspection — every step in-house.
Standard cuvettes
2-window UV-grade JGS1 quartz, 1–100 mm path lengths. The 10 mm classic is our highest-volume in-house SKU.
Fluorescence cells
4-window optically polished, for 90° emission detection. Matched cell pairs to within 0.005 A baseline.
Flow cells
HPLC, FIA, continuous-flow process monitoring. Custom port geometry and inlet/outlet routing.
Micro & sub-micro
50 µL to 1 mL sample volumes. Z-dimension 8.5 / 15 / 20 mm options for every spectrophotometer family.
IR cuvettes
JGS3 quartz, transmission to 3,500 nm. For FTIR, NIR, dye-laser, mid-IR work where JGS1’s OH absorption interferes.
Stoppered & sealed
PTFE stoppers, screw-cap GL14/18, ground-glass joints. Volatile, anaerobic, and corrosive sample work.
Quartz capillaries & rods
Round and square cross-section capillaries, solid rods, special geometries. nL to µL sample work.
Plates, discs & windows
Fused quartz, sapphire, CaF₂ windows for high-T, high-pressure, and extended-wavelength optical work.
Custom & OEM
Non-standard Z-dim, multi-chamber cells, fiber-optic coupling, AR coatings. Custom orders fabricated to spec. MOQ 2–4 pcs, 1–4 week lead.
Section 3.5 · The Cells We Ship
Real product photos from our standard catalog
Nine product lines, nine real photos from cells we currently fabricate or stock in Hong Kong. No stock photography, no rendered mockups.
Quartz flow cells
HPLC · FIA · process monitoring
JGS3 IR cuvettes
FTIR · NIR · 260–3500 nm window
Long-path cells
50 / 100 mm · trace analysis
Quartz capillaries & rods
round / square · nL volumes
Windows & plates
quartz · sapphire · CaF₂
Quartz sample vials
trace-metal · UV-stable storage
Quartz petri dishes
UV-transparent culture work
Custom sample holders
XRD specimen mounts · OEM
Custom flow cell — real shipment
built to spec · MOQ 2–4 pcs
Section 3.8 · The Four-Method × Five-Material Matrix
Why we run four fabrication methods, not one
Picking a cuvette is not “what shape” — it is “what shape × what material × what bond.” Our production line runs all four fabrication methods. We combine them with the right quartz grade for each application — twenty meaningful combinations, all in-house.
| Fabrication | JGS1 (185 nm) | JGS3 (260 nm, IR) | Sapphire | CaF₂ | Optical glass |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard 80 (glued) | ★ Default UV-Vis | NIR routine | overkill | solubility risk | visible-only budget |
| Sintered 80 | solvents / acids | NIR + solvents | aggressive chem | not paired | not paired |
| Sintered 83 (pharma) | ★ UV pharma | IR pharma | harsh + pharma | not paired | not paired |
| Molded 83 (sealed) | high-T UV | ★ IR / dye laser | high T + P | not paired | not paired |
★ marks our most-shipped combinations. Fabrication glossary covers the joining method, temperature limits, and chemical resistance of each row. Material guide explains the quartz-grade column choices.
Section 4 · How We Work
Four operating principles
Factory direct, never a reseller
Every cuvette is fabricated and inspected in our Hong Kong production line, then shipped direct. No re-labeled imports, no Hellma-Starna-FireflySci markup chains. The price you pay is our fabrication cost plus margin, plus shipping — published upfront, no catalog inflation.
Technical literacy is part of the product
The selection guide, material guide, and UV-Vis pillar are open to read because a customer who knows what they need orders better and returns less.
Premium grade as default, not upsell
JGS1 synthetic quartz is what we stock for standard UV-Vis. Most catalogs default to the cheaper JGS2 grade. At our production scale, the cost difference closes — and the customer wins by getting deep-UV headroom for free.
2-piece MOQ for custom work
No 100-piece walls before you can prototype a design. Build two cells, evaluate, then scale. We quote 2-piece runs in the same business day as 200-piece runs.
Section 4.5 · Custom Fabrication Capability
From customer spec to custom cuvette — our fabrication line
Every custom order runs through the same six in-house fabrication stages. The four published tolerance numbers below are the ones that decide whether a cell is good enough for your method — verifiable on arrival.
±0.01
Path tol. (mm, Molded 83)
Molded 83 high-end ±0.01 · Sintered ±0.02 · Standard 80 ±0.05. Measured on every cell shipped.
λ/4
Window flatness
Interferometric verification on optical faces of every cell
±2%
Volume accuracy
Gravimetric verification on micro and sub-micro cells
0.005 A
Pair baseline match
Maximum baseline difference between matched cells at 280 nm
Section 5 · Who We Serve
Customers across four segments
Different industries buy cuvettes for different reasons. We treat each segment with its own priorities.
Academic research
Universities, government labs, postdoc-led teams. Single-piece orders, bespoke geometry for one experiment.
Pharma QC & biotech
USP/EP compliance, lot serialization, matched cell pairs. Recurring orders with controlled traceability.
OEM instrument makers
Embedded UV-Vis modules, process analyzers, custom analytical instruments. Branded packaging, scheduled delivery.
Industrial & environmental
Water quality, food & beverage QC, semiconductor metrology. Durable cells, harsh-chemistry compatibility.
Section 5.5 · Where We Ship
30+ countries · 5 continents · one warehouse
Cells we fabricate are in spectroscopy labs from Boston to Beijing, Sydney to São Paulo. The map below shows the regions where we actively ship and the typical delivery time from our Hong Kong warehouse.
Section 6 · Company Details
AIREKA Scientific Co., Limited
For purchase orders, tax documentation, and legal paperwork — the operating entity behind the MachinedQuartz brand.
Hong Kong Registered Entity
AIREKA SCIENTIFIC
CO., LIMITED
Operating company behind the MachinedQuartz brand
2013
Founded · Hong Kong SAR
12+
Years of fabrication operation
61092008
HK Tax ID / business registration
Registered office
Kwun Tong district
Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR
Full registered address provided on order confirmation or under NDA for OEM & due-diligence requests.
Contact
sales@machinedquartz.com
+852 6336 0750
English & Chinese supported. Sales reply within one business day.
Working hours
Monday – Friday
09:00 – 18:00 HKT
UTC+8 · Saturday, Sunday and HK public holidays closed.
Service area
Worldwide
30+ countries shipping
FedEx Priority direct from HK. Duty-free terms on most USA shipments.
Section 6.5 · About MachinedQuartz · FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Does MachinedQuartz fabricate cuvettes, or just resell them?
We fabricate. MachinedQuartz operates a quartz cuvette and optics production line in Hong Kong under the AIREKA Scientific legal entity (registered 2013). The line covers all four fabrication methods (Standard 80 glued, Sintered 80, Sintered 83, Molded 83), JGS1 and JGS3 quartz grades, custom machining, optical polishing, sealing, and the five-step QC workflow. We are not a marketplace, not a re-label of a distributor brand, and not a passive reseller.
Why don’t you stock JGS2 quartz like other catalogs?
JGS1’s 185 nm UV cutoff fully contains JGS2’s 220 nm range. Every analytical UV-Vis method that runs on JGS2 also runs on JGS1, plus JGS1 reaches the deep-UV region (185–220 nm) where JGS2 fails. At our manufacturing scale the price difference between the two grades closes enough that we ship JGS1 at the same band that catalogs charge for JGS2. The customer gets the premium grade by default. Read the full reasoning in our material selection guide.
How is MachinedQuartz different from Hellma, Starna, or FireflySci?
Three differences. (1) We are factory-direct, not a brand on top of imported cells. (2) Our MOQ for custom orders is 2–4 pieces, not 50–100. (3) We publish the manufacturing details — fabrication method, quartz grade, tolerance numbers — instead of treating them as proprietary. For specific part-number cross-references see our Hellma, Starna, FireflySci, and Azzota alternative pages.
Where is MachinedQuartz based?
AIREKA Scientific Co., Limited is registered in Hong Kong (Kwun Tong district, Kowloon SAR). All sourcing, QC, packing, and worldwide FedEx shipping happens from our Hong Kong operation. The brand is MachinedQuartz; the operating company is AIREKA Scientific. Tax ID 61092008. Full address is provided on order confirmation or under NDA for due diligence.
Do you do OEM and instrument-maker bulk orders?
Yes — OEM and bulk is a core line. We handle controlled-lot material consistency, serialized cells, branded packaging, recurring scheduled deliveries, and dedicated technical contact for repeat customers. About half of our revenue comes from OEM and large-volume buyers. Email sales with your annual volume target to discuss pricing and process.
What quality documentation do you provide?
Standard order: path length and Z-dimension measurement records, material grade certificate, packing slip. Premium / compliance order (Sintered 83 pharma cells, USP/EP work): full Certificate of Analysis including baseline absorbance scan, lot traceability, fabrication batch number, QC inspector ID. We can also provide RoHS, REACH, and ISO 9001 documentation on request — ask before ordering if needed.
How fast can you turn around a quote?
Quote turnaround target is 24 hours during Hong Kong business hours (Mon–Fri 09:00–18:00 HKT, UTC+8). To hit that, send the nine specs — Z-dim, path length, sample volume, material grade, window count, fabrication method, cap type, drawing/CAD, and any special requirements — in one message. Missing pieces add a back-and-forth that pushes a one-day quote into a one-week one.
Can I visit the Hong Kong facility?
For OEM customers and research partners under NDA, yes — we host scheduled office and warehouse visits by appointment. For one-off retail orders this is generally not practical. Email sales with the reason for the visit at least 14 days in advance.
Talk to the fabrication team
For a quote, technical question, or sample request — send us the six specs and we reply within one business day.
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