Microplate reader health
checks and free thermocycler validation

Labtech International are providing special offers for microplate reader health checks and free thermocycler validation to promote their expanding service and support capabilities.  Many laboratories only consider using service support for maintenance and breakdown repair. Condition monitoring and regulatory compliance, however, are just as important. The special offers are designed to confirm instrument status and identify potential future issues to minimise the risk to the analytical processes and to avoid more significant costs. 

The time when you realise how good your local supplier is at providing support is when things go wrong, especially as there is never a convenient time for such events to occur. In a breakdown situation fast response is essential. Labtech International therefore generally provides onsite rather than back to base servicing, using highly trained accredited engineers who utilise certified test equipment and approved spare parts.  In an emergency Labtech International can supply loan equipment or offer long term hire contracts to ensure that the laboratory continues to function. As prevention is better than cure however, Labtech International offers customised maintenance agreements to meet individual laboratory requirements, be it simple preventative maintenance or documented critical component monitoring. For regulated environments full validation is available incorporating NIST/NAMAS traceable equipment and standards.  The latest flexible and adaptable support plans are designed to take into account workload, risk factors, pre-emptive repair and product life cycles while being sympathetic to budgetary constraints. For example our Service Upgrade Scheme allows customers to slowly replace their aging fleet of instruments within a fully comprehensive contract period. The new instruments will also have inclusive warranties, which will reduce the overall cost of service provision each quarter, leading to significant mid-term cost savings.

Jenna Barnard, UK Support Manager says "with experience in both engineering and applications the Labtech International customer support team is able to respond to just about any kind of situation, from breakdown to method development issues. Regular maintenance of their laboratory instrumentation means that our customers benefit from lower running costs, longer instrument lifetimes, higher reliability plus improved performance. Our PhD qualified applications team is great for trouble shooting and helping our customers get the best out of their instrumentation as we appreciate the real costs of producing poor quality measurements".
Labtech International now also supports the installed base of G-Storm and MJ Research thermal cyclers plus laboratory freezers, centrifuges and incubators in addition to their distributed products from NanoDrop, Tecan and Illumina.

For further information, e-mail: sales@labtech.com or view website: www.labtech.com   Refer to page 271

New technology expands ability to recycle precious metals

Precious metals like platinum and rhodium are very valuable, and also very rare. That makes it increasingly important to recycle these precious metals from a wide variety of industrial uses. For example, various catalytic processes in the chemical industry generate large amounts of fluid residue containing low concentrations of precious metal catalysts.

The new adsorption process (scavenger technology) being offered in cooperation with the PhosphonicS company in the UK will allow Heraeus to reprocess waste solutions that contain even low concentrations of precious metals. Up until now, it simply was not affordable or profitable to recycle them.

"This strategic partnership is another building block for us to offer our customers a broader range of precious metal recycling," notes Dr. Joachim Kralik, Head of Chemical Process Development Recycling in the Heraeus Precious Metals Business Unit. Heraeus brings to the partnership its wide-ranging expertise with precious metals and many years of experience in recycling materials containing precious metals--especially from industrial catalysts. This cooperation means that Heraeus customers from the pharmaceutical, industrial, and specialty chemical industries will be able to optimize their processes, both ecologically and economically.

Together with PhosphonicS, Heraeus offers a wide range of a new generation of select and efficient adsorption agents--called scavengers--to remove and recover precious metals from chemical products and waste solutions. Since this can accomplish precious metal output levels for process solutions in the single-digit ppm range (ppm = parts per million), even the slightest amounts of precious metal are retained and reused in the precious metals cycle, saving both resources and the environment.

New adsorption technology works like a "chemical magnet"
The scavenger process allows the efficient recovery, even for waste solutions with extremely low concentrations of precious metals. "With this process, it's almost like we're pulling finely distributed precious metal residue from the solution with a 'chemical magnet.' The precious metal is bound to the surface of the adsorption medium. We can reprocess that material with its valuable content using wet-chemical processes in a way that yields pure precious metal," explains Dr. Kralik in simple terms.

In principle, the scavenger process can be used for all precious metals. This technology has already been successfully employed for heavily-diluted organic platinum and rhodium solutions from homogeneous catalytic processes from the chemical industry. Rhodium is principally needed for catalytic converters for the automotive industry, but also finds widespread application in the chemical industry because of its outstanding catalytic properties. Homogeneous catalytic processes using rhodium play an important role in the production of special chemicals (plasticizers, acetic acid, acetic anhydride, and pharmaceutical agents). Platinum catalysts are important for silicone production.

Background: Precious metals - rare and valuable
Mines produce more than 20,000 tons of silver and only around 2,400 tons of gold annually. Platinum metals are even rarer: Altogether, approximately 500 tons of these metals are extracted worldwide. The amount of platinum obtained each year--around 200 tons--would easily fit in a garage. And the 25 tons of rhodium mined annually, indispensible to the automotive and chemical industries, would fit under a desk. Heraeus has developed a special process for recovering the less familiar metals in the platinum family--not only platinum, but also palladium, rhodium, ruthenium, and iridium--that are used in many everyday applications. A closed precious metal cycle conserves resources and helps protect the environment. Also, because of ever-increasing demand for precious metals, mining has not been able to meet demand for some time; this makes recycling absolutely essential.

PhosphonicS Ltd in profile
PhosphonicS Ltd is a spin out company from Queen Mary, University of London. PhosphonicS™ makes a diverse range of "functionalised" materials of which the metal scavengers represent one of the first examples. The metal scavengers are also finding increasing use in pharmaceutical and fine chemical production.  Other applications under development include catalysis and membranes.

Heraeus in profile
Heraeus, the precious metals and technology group headquartered in Hanau, Germany, is a global, private company with 160 years of tradition. Our fields of competence include precious metals, materials, and technologies; sensors; biomaterials; and medical products, as well as dental products, quartz glass, and specialty light sources. With product revenues of €4.1 billion and precious metal trading revenues of €17.9 billion, as well as more than 12,900 employees in over 120 subsidiaries worldwide, Heraeus holds a leading position in its global markets.
                                                                         
For further information, e-mail: joerg.wetterau@heraeus.com

Industry's only combined pressure
and temperature cavity injection molding sensor

Kistler (www.kistler.com), a worldwide supplier of precision sensors, systems and instrumentation for the dynamic measurement of pressure, force, torque and acceleration, today introduced the Type 6190, a high-precision transducer designed to offer combined measurements of both cavity pressure and contact temperature during industrial thermoplastic and elastomeric injection molding operations.  It is the only sensor of its kind offering this type of combined measurement capability within a single, compact package.

The Type 6190 pressure sensor incorporates a high-quality quartz sensing element and a diaphragm-free design with a flat, measuring front and four-millimeter bore diameter, allowing it to support space-constrained mold cavity pressure measurements of up to 2000 bar. An integral thermocouple and field replaceable connecting cable are included to support enhanced temperature measurement capabilities, with the compact sensor dimensions allowing for fast temperature response times. Mounting dimensions are directly compatible with bore sizes of Kistler Types 6175B and 6177 pressure sensors for the easy drop-in replacement of legacy sensors in applications where additional temperature measurement capabilities are important for improved process data collection. This is particularly useful in such applications as injection molding surface analysis and the evaluation of knit lines in components with longer flow paths.

The rugged combination cable feeds both pressure and temperature signals to two connectors. The cable is screwed behind the sensor with a union nut and can be exchanged. Sensors without connectors, available as Type 6190CAG, are available for multi-cavity molds. The charge cable can then be connected to Kistler Type 1708 or 1710A multi-channel connectors and the temperature conductors to the Type 2205A temperature amplifier. The sensor is designed to reliably operate in temperatures of up to +200°C (+392°F). Recommended accessories, sold separately, include Type 1661A pressure cables, Type 2290A temperature cables, the Type 1315A installation tool, and the Type 1383 mounting wrench for split nut. For additional details and specifications, please contact Kistler North America toll-free (in the US & Canada) at 1-888-KISTLER, via email at: sales.us@kistler.com or visit: www.kistler.com.                                        

Kistler North America in profile
Kistler North America a Kistler group company, is a supplier of precision sensors, systems and instrumentation for the dynamic measurement of pressure, force, torque and acceleration, as well as related electronics and software serving the automotive, aerospace, industrial, metal processing, plastic injection molding, R&D and testing & evaluation communities. Kistler products, ISO certified since 1994, are well recognized for performance, quality and reliability. With global headquarters in Winterthur, Switzerland and established North American operations since 1955, Kistler's expansive global sales presence is supported by the activities of 25 group companies and 30 distributors ensuring customer proximity, individualized application support and short product lead times. K-Beam®, PiezoStar® and PiezoBeam® are registered trademarks of Kistler. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

For further information, view website: www.kistler.com