Special Edition: Lab Technology
News round-up ahead of Pittcon 2018
The conference and expo is from 26 February – 1 March at Orange Country Convention Center in Orlando, Florida.
This round-up features Cole-Palmer, Elementar, Ibsen Photonics and Sirius Automation Group.
Cole-Palmer news
Argos Technologies will launch a pipette controller that can be used with plastic or glass pipettes from 1 to 100 mL.
The Omega Zen pipette controller liquid crystal display (LCD) shows aspirate/dispense speed, gravity (drop) mode and battery charge. Aspirate/dispense speed can be finely tuned using thumbwheel and triggers.
Argos Technologies, part of Cole-Parmer, provides a range of equipment and supplies to the laboratory research community including liquid handling, benchtop equipment, general lab consumables and cryogenic storage.
Pittcon 2018
The Pittcon 2018 Exposition will include 718 exhibitors who will showcase products and services used by the scientific community in industrial, academic and government labs.
The event will have 184 international exhibiting companies headquartered in 33 countries outside the US such as China, Canada, Germany, Japan and the UK. Additionally, 90 firms will make their debut on the exposition floor.
The expo floor will feature two NEXUS Theaters with presentations from exhibitors and speakers.
Eli Absey, exposition chairman, said: "With the new three-day exposition format and Tuesday 'Expo Only' afternoon, we expect the floor to be buzzing with excitement. We're looking forward to our new NEXUS Theaters, as these presentations are shaping up to be a great educational, entertaining and networking opportunity for all.”
Cole-Palmer has unveiled networking drives for industrial networking, plant automation or water/wastewater applications.
The drives for Masterflex peristaltic pumps provide options for networking protocols without installing gateways or adapters.
Drive options include native Ethernet/IP or Profibus bi-directional communication with
Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) connectivity and an iOS-based mobile app to permit local pump monitoring and control.
They are compatible with most automation control systems such as Allen-Bradley, Siemens, Emerson and Honeywell.
Environmental Express has automated the most dangerous step of sample prep for metals digestion—the addition of acids and reagents.
AutoBlock fits any size HotBlock digestion system and is for any lab performing their own metals digestion method.
AutoBlock Fill dispenses from up to five reagent bottles at a time. A five-way valve eliminates the need to swap out reagent bottles when switching digestion methods.
The metals digestion process is extremely corrosive and the AutoBlock Fill unit fits inside standardsized fume hoods or the Environmental Express AirLite Benchtop Enclosure.
Birch Biotech and Elementar
Birch Biotech has partnered with Duksan Pure Chemicals to distribute the Pristine high purity chemical product line. The Pristine line includes acetonitrile, methanol and water.
Within a week of launching the line, Birch Biotech began fulfilling orders. Each bottle is labeled with the reagent’s lot analysis.
Adam Ardekani, president of Birch Biotech, said: “We’re determined to make strides towards industry innovations, handing the key to our end users and enabling them to unlock the success behind their research efforts.”
Birch Biotech is new to the industry and plans to expand its product line this year after initially offering customers Pristine high purity LC-MS and HPLC reagents.
Elementar has introduced a platform for determination of total organic carbon, total nitrogen and total phosphorus.
The acquray series allows labs to invest in what they need at the time but grow into different markets. It is a TOC analyzer module, a TNb module, a TP module and a combustion furnace for solids.
The TOC module is based on a chemical oxidation process supported by high-energy UV radiation.
An autosampler is available for increased sample throughput offering carousels for different sample vial sizes.
Elementar will also open a new corporate facility in Ronkonkoma, New York in March. Elementar Americas began 20 years ago in Mount Laurel, New Jersey.
The HQ for the Americas business will have training rooms, an operational testing and service lab and a logistics center to meet delivery and supply chain expectations of customers.
Ibsen, United Scientific Supplies and Sirius
Ibsen Photonics will show a series of compact high resolution OEM spectrometers.
The FREEDOM C offers a resolution down to 0.15 nm. Spectrometers can be supplied with Ibsen’s Digital Image Sensor Board electronics (DISB-101S) which offers fast timing control for applications like Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS).
The series includes a spectrometer for the UV, the VIS and VIS-NIR range using CMOS detector technology with 4096 pixels.
Ibsen Photonics is privately owned with FOSS holding 85% of shares and the rest by employees.
United Scientific Supplies has released an electronic buret that provides quick, repeatable and accurate titrations.
The Emerald e-Buret features three dispensing speeds including drop-wise dispensing. A total of 20 titration results can be saved and downloaded to a computer.
It will be featured in the live demo showcase at Demo Area 2 10:30 on 28 February.
Sirius Automation Group has developed a ‘Personal Assistant’ Robot for routine tasks in the laboratory.
The MiniTasker is for analytical weighing (four or five place), sample ID (1D or 2D barcodes), sorting, dilutions, internal standard addition, standard prep, un-capping and re-capping, transfers and aliquoting.
Sample capacity is max 20 microplate racks or custom equivalent, choice of disposables and labware with LIMS compatible data management.
