Laboratory Instrument Market and Technology Forecast in 2011

Recently, the Laboratory Equipment magazine editors interviewed the leading manufacturers of laboratory instruments and asked them to talk about the development trend of laboratory instruments in 2011.

Analytical instruments and laboratory equipment manufacturers will continue to improve the performance of their products to reduce the cost of analysis and testing of users and the speed of detection, while working with customers to find ways to reduce the overall operating costs of the laboratory and enhance the ease of operation of the instrument. Each manufacturer achieves these overall goals through its own specific product production, while paying close attention to the operational capabilities and testing objectives of their target customers.

The field of life sciences, including food, agriculture, medical diagnostics, and cell and molecular biology are key development areas for instrument manufacturers in 2011. Most instrument manufacturers stated that software development and analysis speeds are areas where current analytical instruments are in urgent need of improvement. At the same time, they believe that mass spectrometry technology, automation and software systems will achieve significant progress in 2011. Of course, a large amount of data indicates that various analytical technologies, applications, and products will make new progress in 2011, and manufacturers will continue to target areas where they may bring opportunities.

Faster sample preparation technology “The current development of sample preparation technology is far behind the development of analytical instruments, such as UHPLC,” said Vivek Joshi, senior scientist at EMDMillipore Technology Development Group. “That's why we developed the Samplicity filtration system. - EMDMillipore's next-generation sample preparation system will be presented at the Pittsburgh Atlanta 2011. When performing sample preparation for analytical methods such as UHPLC and HPLC, a vacuum-type Samplicity Filtration System will replace needle syringes to provide high Flux screening and more convenient operation.

When multiple sample preparations are performed, the use of separately packaged syringes is time consuming and manual filtration is laborious, especially for viscous samples. The Samplicity filtration system can simultaneously vacuum-filter eight samples in seconds. Using a standard pipette can quickly and simply load the sample onto the analysis system. In addition, the system has a very low residue and can handle less than 200 microliters of sample. Samples can be filtered directly into LC bottles and ready for subsequent analysis in multiple applications.

VivekJoshi said: "With less than 30% of sample preparation laboratories using automated operating systems, Samplicity filtration systems can save these lab personnel 30% to 40% of the time compared to traditional manual operating systems, while also saving manpower. In particular, when the user handles some of the more viscous samples, he needs to use more force to push the syringe, so this savings is even more pronounced."

In the area of ​​analytical instruments, Ken Miller, senior director of LC-MS marketing at Agilent Technologies, said, “We will continue to advance the basic mass spectrometer analysis technology and combine sample processing, data processing, and reduced spectral interference to obtain effective analysis results. Recently, Agilent launched The 500IonTrapLC-MS will be exhibited at the 2011 Pittsburgh Show, an economical and accurate MS-MS analysis tool for chemical analysis, food and product safety testing, and other industrial fields."

"The 500IonTrapLC-MS fits perfectly with our LC-MS product portfolio," Miller said. "It provides a more flexible choice for qualitative and quantitative analysis of many conventional compounds and is ideal for many laboratories. The instrument is designed to handle tricky For small molecule analysis, the instrument also offers alternative ionization modes and scanning techniques to ensure that the compounds in the user's sample are screened and confirmed in one experiment."

James Neal-Kababick, director of the Flora Research Laboratory, said, "Agilent's 500IonTrapLC-MS is capable of real-time mass spectrometry data, making the qualitative analysis of samples faster and more reliable. The ion trap mass spectrometry technology can provide other ion trap mass spectrometry does not have The power and versatility, and the price is reasonable."

The automated operating system laboratory automation system will be an important direction of future instrumentation. ZinsserAnalytic marketing director JimSchools said: "We focus on product improvements and simplifications, providing users with the level of automation required, while ensuring low-cost and easy-to-use software, we can provide automation products that were not available on the market."

The new TARIS presented by ZinsserAnalytic at the Pittsburgh Conference in 2011 is a small, easy-to-use automation platform that can perform peeling and weighing together with vials. Capping, lid removal and scanning operations can also be performed if required. The manufacturers can provide such automated solutions. The device can run 100 to 200 vials at a time, and each vial takes only one minute to complete operations including cap removal, barcode reading, taring, weighing, and cap replacement. The operation of the device is completely controlled by software and permanently stores the corresponding operating parameters.

Software can improve the performance of most products. According to Gavin Davies, Marketing Manager of ALMSCO International, “We have developed new software for faster, easier and more accurate analysis of complex GC-MS experimental data. We recently launched the TargetView software package. BenchTOF-DX is our desktop time-of-flight mass spectrometry system. With the focus on development in 2011, we hope to develop corresponding software to make complex data clear and provide the best sensitivity, speed, and selectivity for screening traces."

In addition, Hamilton recently announced a partnership with Peak Robots, Colorado Springs, to integrate the KINEDx robot series with Hamilton's MicrolabSTAR automated liquid processing workstation. The device is very flexible, and can even perform operations such as tilting, flipping, resuspending, shaking, etc., and can be applied to sample preparation, protein crystallization, and the like.

Better performance In the field of thermal analysis, Mettler Toledo introduced a new differential scanning calorimeter, FlashDSC, with ultra-high cooling (-4,000C/S) and heating rate (4,000C/s). S). “This revolutionary fast scanning DSC technique can be used for crystal kinetics research and reorganization research during rapid production. Flash DSC can also perform thermal effects analysis of polymers and APIs, which was previously unachievable,” METTLER George McLean, marketing manager at Tory Labs Analytics, said.

The FlashDSC will also be on display at the 2011 Pittsburgh Show. It offers a temperature range from -95C to 450C, and has a very good ergonomic design that makes daily operations easier and safer. The ultra-high cooling and heating rates allow researchers to synthesize materials (under cooling conditions) under real process conditions and then measure the properties of these materials (under heating conditions) to obtain experimental results that were previously unavailable.

In the life sciences, instrument developers continue to improve their product design and performance. "We will continue to focus on peptide synthesis and microwave sample preparation," said Michael Collins, CEO of CEM. They will present their new DiscoverSP-D microwave digestion system at the 2011 Pittsburgh Show. The Activent technology used in the DiscoverSP-D microwave digestion system is a major advance in pressurized microwave digestion technology for 25 years. A basic sample digestion process, including cooling, takes only 10 minutes. DiscoverSP-D achieves maximum pressure and temperature control in every sample analysis. Pyrex vials or quartz vials with easy-to-use, disposable removable caps can also be used with the DiscoverSP-D system. The system has a separate sample program, different samples can be set up with different digestion procedures, and even sample vials can be moved in any sequence. "There is no faster and easier pressure microwave digestion than this," says Collins.

Sky Countryman, Phenomenex's application technology manager, said, "We are developing new HPLC columns, GC columns and SPE columns to solve some of the most challenging separation needs. We are committed to providing comprehensive solutions to our customers. The program reduces the time and expense required for a given analysis, while ensuring the accuracy of the analysis data. These improvements and designs are designed to leverage some of the company's existing instruments, such as HPLC or GC systems, to minimize capital investment for customers."

Phenomenex will present two new Kinetex series products at the 2011 Pittsburgh Show: First, Kinetex XB-C18, which improves peak shape and enhances the separation of basic compounds at acidic and neutral pH conditions; the other is Kinetex C18 with nuclear- Shell Technology's Kinetex UHPLC Columns.