About us

We are here to serve the scientific community. We do this by providing high quality products at affordable prices. We are also dedicated to maintaining the leading edge of technology development. Our reputation is based on this.

Area Map

McAllister Technical Services was founded in Berkeley, California in 1981. At that time, most scientific equipment was over-priced and not really flexible enough to meet science's ever changing needs. From the very first day, our objective has been to offer the scientific community an alternative to that inflexibility. Our goal has been to offer top quality, really innovative scientific equipment, custom devices and gizmos at a fair price. The scientific community agreed for we have expanded. As we grew, the goal has always been Service(s), just like the name.

The scientific community, while dispersed worldwide, is basically small. It is, therefore, unnecessary for a business to be located in a major metropolitan area in order to provide service. After nine years of dealing with increasing traffic, spiraling housing costs, congestion and an unresponsive city government, it was time for a change. This change was aided by the widespread growth of fax and other electronic communication media as well as the growth of parcel delivery services nationwide. So, in the summer of 1990, MTS moved to Coeur d'Alene in northern Idaho's beautiful Kootenai County.

Since the move, we have deliberately slowed growth. This is very important because, as a technology-driven company grows rapidly, it is possible to lose sight of the founding principles in the quest for ever larger marketing and sales goals. We can all think of examples when this has been the case in the scientific instruments field. Therefore, at MTS, growth was slowed somewhat to ensure that the original goals and objectives were not lost. This is unusual in business today and downright unorthodox in many circles. That's OK. We do not mind. A journey without goals is like a rocking chair ... it gives the impression of progress without any real motion

Perhaps one of the greatest services we provide is the one-on-one contact between the customer and our top design and technical consultants. We are famous for our ability to help with customers' engineering and design problems. Because we are small and have not outgrown our original objectives, we are able to customize products in a way no larger manufacturer is able to do. This is what makes our job interesting. This is what we love to do. We are here to serve. The watchwords are "Innovation, Service, Quality and Affordability."