5.	Guarantees

In certain geographical regions, particularly Europe and Africa, we are sometimes required to issue performance guarantees to our customers as a condition of sale. These guarantees usually provide financial protection to our customers in the event that we fail to fulfill our delivery or product warranty obligations. We secure these guarantees with standby letters of credit through our bank. At September 30, 2012 and December 31, 2011, we had $433,000 and $446,000 respectively, of performance guarantees outstanding to customers that were secured with letters of credit.