About Us

element Pi, LLC is a distributor of our own line of Vacuum Coaters for SEM and Thin Film Deposition (Sputter, Carbon, Thermal Evaporation). Our sales office and demonstration lab is located in Ridgefield, Washington – a small quaint town outside Vancouver and near Mt St Helens and the Columbia River.

So why Pi you might wonder?  Pi is the most recognized mathematical constant and often considered the most intriguing and important number in all of mathematics.  So in the spirit of Pi, we offer products that will continue to intrigue you as new developments are reached and our goal is to make our products become an important asset to your research.  However, while Pi is an irrational number like its cousins “e” and “√2” that like to go on forever, we will offer nothing but rational explanations and advice when it comes to selecting the best product solution.  Through your use of our products, we promise that “Pi” will equate to “Precision Imaging” that you can count on.

Please have a look at more of the Pi FACTS info below.

Our sales office and demonstration lab is located in Ridgefield, Washington.

Maybe you will want to plan your visit combined with a weekend or take a few days vacation and make your visit a working vacation.  There is so much to see and do in the Pacific Northwest region:

  • The Columbia Gorge and Hood River is world renowned as a destination for wind surfing, kite boarding and paddle boarding.
  • Great beaches and quaint coastal towns like Cannon Beach are only 1.5 hour drive away.  See Haystack Rock or the hike down to secluded Sand Beach through old growth forest is truly amazing.
  • Touring the Willamette Valley or Washing wine country.
  • Mt. Hood – year round snow skiing on the Palmer Glacier.
  • Mt. St. Helens is about hours drive away
  • Salmon, Steelhead and Halibut fishing with a guide and outfitter in the amazing Columbia River from Spring to Fall.
  • Bring your clubs as there are numerous great golf courses all through the region.

Check out the Portland area travel guide for the long list of activities possible here.

Check out the “Getting Here” tab to see how to find us and recommended airports and hotels to make planning your trip as easy as possible.  We are also happy to provide you with our “local” knowledge if you want to plan a vacation or want our perspective about any activities in the area.

Here are a few videos to help encourage you to pay us a visit:

Oregon Beaches (just a 90 minute drive west of our office):

Willamette Valley Wine Country:

Columbia River Fishing:

FLIGHTS

Excuse us for bragging but the PDX airport has been voted America’s favorite airport 5 years in a row.  Is it the Airport or just the fact that you’re coming to such a great place with so much to see and do?  But the airport here is actually quite nice and our Light Rail (MAX) boards literally just 100 yards from baggage claim for easy access downtown or to Beaverton only 10 minutes drive from our office.  There are also dedicated UBER and LYFT attendants and pickup lanes which is very popular here.

We have direct flights from most major US cities on all of the major airlines.  If you fly here on a clear day, be sure to grab a window seat as the last 25 miles approach is amazing flying between Mt. Hood and Mt. St. Helens right over the Columbia Gorge.  If you want to make a quick trip and avoid an extra night, there are numerous red-eye flights leaving around midnight to eastern destinations like New York, DC, Atlanta, Dallas, and Chicago.

From the airport, if you decide not to rent a car (which truly isn’t necessary), there is the MAX Light Rail just outside the baggage claim area.  Take the Red or Blue line for $2,50 and stay at one of the popular downtown hotels or continue on the the Sunset Transit Center in Beaverton where you can catch a short Uber/Lyft to your hotel or our office.  We are also happy to come pick you up.

HOTELS

If you plan to stay a few days and enjoy the area, the downtown hotels are a great choice and very convenient – no car needed.  We would be glad to give you some recommendations.  Close to our office, here are some recommended hotels:

  • Embassy Suites – Tigard
  • Hilton Double Tree – Tigard
  • Marriott Courtyard near Washington Square Mall
  • Marriott Townplace Suites – Beaverton
  • Holiday Inn Express (coming soon – very close)

Be watching for details about our annual Pi day special on March 14.

  • Have you noticed our toll free phone number?  It is Pi rounded to 6 decimal places – 833-3141593
  • In the first million decimal places of Pi, there are 100,000 occurrences (±500) of each number digit (0-9) showing just what a random and special number it is.
  • The first 144 digits of Pi sum to “666”.
  • In the 1967 Star Trek episode “Wolf in the Fold”, Spock defeats the evil computer by commanding it to compute the last digit of Pi.
  • Albert Einstein was born on Pi day – March 14, 1879.
  • The ancient Babylonians knew of Pi‘s existence nearly 4,000 years ago. A Babylonian tablet from between 1900 B.C. and 1680 B.C. calculates Pi as 3.125
  • Pi or 314 written in block letters has a mirror image of PIE
  • A Givenchy men’s cologne named Pi is marketed as highlighting the sexual appeal of intelligent and visionary men.  OK, whatever…

  • During the O.J. Simpson trial, there were arguments between defense attorney Robert Blasier and an FBI agent about the actual value of Pi, seemingly to reveal flaws in the FBI agent’s intellectual acumen.
  • The record for the most digits of Pi memorized belongs to Rajveer Meena of Vellore, India, who recited 70,000 decimal places of Pi on March 21, 2015, according to Guinness World Records.   What a waste of brain cells, right?
  • Considered the “most beautiful equation in math” (is that really possible?) is a formula involving Pi and several other unique numbers such as “e” (Euler’s number), “i” the imaginary constant of the square root of -1.  The formula is known as Euler’s Identity which is .
  • The first six digits of Pi (314159) appear in order six times among the first ten million decimals of Pi.
  • Pi Music set to the tune of several popular songs like American Pie, Jenny (867-5309) and from the Nutcracker ballet:

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  • And lastly for our favorite type of PIE – the VOLUME of that favorite Italian Pi dish so popular in New York and Chicago: