FEATURES

• Small sample volumes: The search for new potent drugs requires high throughputs and the ability to analyse large amounts of new substances every day. Because of the large number of different substances, the volumes of each of them need to be very small. Also, in many other areas the sample volume might be a limiting factor. The customer therefore needs analytical technologies that are miniaturised and thus able to handle small sample volumes.
• Reduced contamination: When smaller sample volumes are analysed, the impact of contaminants from preceding separations on the analysis results is increased. Contaminants that get trapped in the analytical equipment might cause large problems in the following analyses. An attractive solution to this is to exchange as many parts as possible in the analytical equipment to disposable parts.
• Flexibility: The analytical equipment must be able to analyse many different types of samples. It is desirable to be able to exchange some parts of the equipment, such as the column, in a fast and automatic way. An analytical equipment that is flexible and does not require mechanical operations is desired.
• Reproducibility: If the same sample is analysed today, next year or in another laboratory, the result must be exactly the same. Substances that are trapped in the equipment may affect the following analysis. The use of disposable parts is a solution also to this problem.
• Speed: Many complex samples, such as blood plasma and urine, requires sample preparation steps before they can be analysed. In many cases this sample preparation is done only to spare the equipment from possible contaminants in the samples. This is solved today using either on-line or off-line coupled sample preparation techniques. A technology that can handle complex samples without the need for sample preparation would significantly increase sample throughput and minimise possible sample losses.
• Short downtime: Regeneration of columns is automatic which means little or no downtime for cleaning columns