News « 株式会社シンテック

We got several feedback from our Metalica users recently.
“Can you make a Tungsten Carbide knife with a boat?”
“I want to cut semi-thin sections regularly”
“I would like to get a practice knife for beginners”
If we could make it, we would do it, because necessity is the mother of inventions.

We call this knife “Metalica Aqua”.
At this moment, we have only 1 type as Aqua: The blade width is 5.0mm and blade angle is 45-degree.
Aqua has good hydrophilicity. If you try to cut 1um sections, it’s no problem to do.
*See the details of the movie from the link below
As you know, 1um is also available to cut with a Histo knife, however some people don’t want to use a diamond blade due to various reasons.
It’s up to you to use this Aqua. You will probably find a brand new method for cutting by yourself.

Metalica Aqua movie is here

We are planning to exhibit AIRAPT-29 at the end of September.
This conference will take place from Sun. 28th of Sep. to Fri. 3rd of Oct. in Dogo, Matsuyama, Japan.
As you might know, Matsuyama is a very beautiful city on the inland sea.
This western old city is famous for the hill castle.
This castle tower is 1 of 12 oldest and traditional castles in Japan. It has lasted more than 270 years since it was built.
The place of the event is held in the center of a very famous hot spring area.
This hot spring is 1 of the 3 oldest spas in Japan. It has nearly 500 years of history.

This time, our main product for showing is CVD anvils.
Generally, we have been providing plenty of diamond anvils with natural stones.
On the other hand, we have some requirements that are claiming lower price anvils due to several reasons.
We have already provided CVD bevel anvils for several customers and quality is satisfactory for each one.
Of course, we could make double bevel ones, however we haven’t got any opportunities to use this type at the experiments so far.
We will display the other products, too.
If you have some questions or ideas for your future projects, we are waiting to talk to you at our booth.
Look forward to seeing you in Matsuyama very soon!

Official AIRAPT-29 Website is here

We will exhibit our products at another conference in Wuhan, China. The name is 2025 National Conference on Electron Microscopy(2025年全国电子显微学学术年会). The event starts from Friday 26th to Tuesday 30th of September.
We will be there with our local official distributor Ultravision who is based in Shanghai.

If you stay in China or around that country, why don’t you come to Wuhan and stop by our booth?
We will display new products that we have never showed you.
Even if you don’t look for anything at this moment, you may find something that you wanted at your deep psychological level.
Let’s talk about details at our booth and launch your future!

Official 全国电子显微学学术年会 Website is here

We will exhibit our products at MC(Microscopy Conference) 25 in Karlsruhe, Germany from Monday 1st to Thursday 4th of September.
We will be there with our local official distributor Diapack.

If you stay in Germany or around that country, why don’t you come to Karlsruhe and stop by our booth?
We will display several new knives that haven’t been shown to anyone yet.
Even if you don’t look for anything at this moment, you may find something that you wanted in your instinct.
Let’s discuss your current and future project at our booth No.32!

Official MC25 Website is here

We just exhibited at the KSM spring conference with our distributor SIMS.
The meeting itself was held at Yonsei University in Seoul, Korea.
We introduced our knives including the new models and Japanese microtome.
This Japanese microtome will be a good or even better alternative to RMC equipment because it has higher stiffness of the holder and the movement is more precise than Leica and RMC microtomes.
https://www.yamato-web.co.jp/

If you could cut and observe your samples by microtome and SEM or TEM, that would be great.
We understand many people want to do it, however in reality it is difficult to do the above method.
Generally people tend to use polishing or FIB for checking their samples.
Even if this way is the mainstream of research recently, we still insist on trying to cut your samples with microtomes.
Of course it is nothing more than a dream while you are using existing knives.
Nevertheless, once you use our knives, not using famous Giant’s products, you will see the other face of your resin blocks.
If you prepare a good fixation of your samples, a high rigidity microtome and a great cutting tool, you will change your mind drastically.
That is what we wanted to do for a long time and your dreams come true with SYM Knife.

Official KSM Website is here

We just exhibited our knives at the AAT47 conference in Bensaen beach resort in Chonburi, Thailand.
Our official Thai distributor Absotec supported us a lot!
*AAT stands for Anatomy Association of Thailand
This is the first time to show our knives to people who belong to the anatomical research field.
We had 3 days for the meeting and a total of 400 people were gathering to that fabulous resort hotel.

Observing by Electron Microscopy is not a popular method yet in Thailand, however someday it may come like the other countries.
*Many people are choosing Light Microscopes at this moment
Probably this field itself doesn’t need ultrathin sections.
5 micron thickness might be good enough.Even so, our Tungsten Carbide knife, that is Metalica, is able to cut sections between 1 micron and 20 micon very well.
Cutting results by Metalica are much better than existing other metal knives for sure.
As you might know, over 3 micron thickness is difficult to cut with diamond knives.
You may cut that zone with a glass knife, but the quality of the glass knife edge is always unstable.
If you need some demands for this range of sections, Metalica is definitely the great choice to try.

Official AAT47 Website is here

We improved our Noventa recently.
Noventa itself was evaluated by many microtome users, especially those who are making a lot of ribbons for 3D structure.
At the same time, some people, maybe including you, feel “why can’t I set the glass plate in a longitudinal direction?”
Yes, the previous model boat width was narrower than the standard glass plate size(25.4mm).

We understand this claim seriously and made the boat size wider than before.
As you might know, this knife was designed to put a glass plate into the boat from the right or left side only.
Or you have to cut the glass plate smaller by yourself. It is OK if you could do it, but cutting is not for everybody.
As you might have realized, once we cover both ends of the blade, you cannot use those parts for trimming(cutting).
From now on, it is possible to put the plate from the backside smoothly.
In any case, wouldn’t it be nice to get more options of knife usage.
Just try our Neo Noventa!

Some people have mentioned the safety of our Metalica because the blade part is exposed.
If you take care of it carefully, it is hard to get injured with the edge of both ends, we estimate.
Even so, we have to value those voices from the users’ side.
After we considered how to materialize those requests, we succeeded in covering the sharp parts.

As you might have realized, once we cover both ends of the blade, you cannot use those parts for trimming(cutting).
Yes, it’s true but this is the trade-off relationship between practical and safety.
Protecting employees from external wounds is one of the most important precautions of your organization.
If you don’t need to worry about unexpected injury, you may say this is an “easy-to-use” knife.

We made a new shape of Metalica recently for trimming.
As you can see in the left photo, it has a 45-degree diagonal on the right and left side.
Those parts are available to cut blocks the same as the flat part(2.4mm width) in the center.
Means, it would be a great alternative for your current tools.

As you might know, this Metalica is suitable to trim the resin blocks.
It is possible to use much longer time than glass knives and the sharpness of the edge is much more stable than glass.
Of course the price is lower than the diamond trimming knife.
It means, you just need it for trimming, don’t you think?
Plus, this knife cuts the semi-thin sections between 1 micron to 20 micron thickness.
You may say “Adios!” to your current trimming tools and try this Metalica-Diago!
This is a very handy, useful and sustainable tool for your sample preparation for sure.

Our knives have tried to use many new observations so far.
We will introduce some of them below.
Each article is very impressive and they are worth reading.
You will probably get a new method of using knives especially with our characteristic models like MGH, JUMBO with steps and Marking needle.
Of course normal types such as for room temperature and cryo work well, too.
It would be great if you have new ideas from some of them.

[ MGH ]
https://academic.oup.com/jmicro/article/67/suppl_2/i32/5145451

[ JUMBO ]
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gtc.13053 https://repository.kulib.kyoto-u.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2433/285321/1/sciadv.adf6358.pdf

[ JUMBO for Array Tomography ]
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11059521/

[ Marking needle / Notch knife ]
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38450734/
https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/pjab/advpub/0/advpub_pjab.100.035/_html/-char/en

[ SYM2045: RT Ultra ]
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-45825-8

[ Cryo Ultra ]
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41428-023-00810-8
We will let you notice the others later!