Modern laboratories are already automated but a recent new development is taking this to a new level.

Greifensee, Zurich -- (SBWire) -- 11/10/2010 -- Combining Parameters for Improved Productivity
Laboratory automation has been a constantly improving process over the past decades. It started in the 1970s when instruments such as auto-titrators or digital density meters started to replace cumbersome manual apparatus such as glass burettes and pycnometers, notorious for their lack of accuracy and high operator dependence. Productivity improvement was addressed in the late 1980s, when the first auto-samplers allowed the analysis of a series of samples without operator interference. Current automation trends go one step further. So called multi-parameter systems offer the automatic determination of multiple parameters in the same sample and transfer results directly into a laboratory information system (LIMS). This, of course, revolutionizes sample through-put, reduces the amount of sample needed for testing and relieves lab technicians for other tasks.

LiQC: Easier Quality Control of Liquids
METTLER TOLEDO’s LiQC system offers determination of density, refractive index, color, pH and conductivity from the same sample. As a computer based system it can be tailored to automatically recognize samples by bar code, chose an appropriate measuring method, analyze all the desired parameters and evaluate results according to specifications. It exports measured data into a freely configurable ASCII text file, making them available for effortless import into virtually any LIMS system.

For more sophisticated analyses, it even allows sophisticated computation of results such as polynomial fit for concentration determination in tertiary mixtures. Thanks to a very simple user interface, LiQC can be operated by scientists and non-scientific personnel alike.

Forgotten Your Password? Biometric User Identification
One of the most significant innovations within LiQC is its approach to user management. In regulated industries (pharma, cosmetics, food) full traceability of results is a must and therefore user tracking and user rights have to be managed by an analytical instrument. So far, this was accomplished by username/password combinations which had to be entered every time the instrument was used. LiQC follows a different route: It utilizes biometric data (a finger print reader) to unambiguously identify each operator. Users simply scan their index finger before measurement and the instrument automatically assigns predefined user rights and stores the user information with each result. This technology has never before been used in the analytical instrument industry and its application is patented by METLER TOLEDO.

To summarize, multi-parameter systems constitute the latest revolution in analysis automation. LiQC offers; automatic determination of up to four parameters, many advantages in sample and result handling and the management of user identification in a novel and time saving manner by using a finger print reader.

http://www.mt.com/LiQC