This year’s 60th annual conference of the American Society of Mass Spectrometry (ASMS) was held in Vancouver, Canada, from May 20 to 24. Attendance by both exhibitors and end-users was down marginally, from 169 and 6,477 in Denver, Colorado, last year to 165 and 6,283, respectively, this year. There were no fewer than a dozen new MS models introduced at this year’s meeting, or within the preceding weeks, making the show as big a focus as ever for major MS vendors to showcase their new wares. Only a handful of the 165 exhibiting companies were actually MS system vendors, as the majority was suppliers of components, aftermarket hardware and consumables, including products for front-end LC.

Waters introduced its Xevo G2-S Q-Tof and Xevo G2-S Tof LC/MS systems at this year’s ASMS, both of which incorporate Waters’s StepWave ion optics that improve resolution from 20,000 FWHM and 22,500 FWHM, respectively, up to 30,000 FWHM (see IBO 3/31/12). Waters also claims a 20x improvement in sensitivity over the previous-generation Xevo TOF instruments. Although the previous-generation Xevo G2 TOF instruments were introduced within the last two years, Waters upgraded both with StepWave optics, which are already available on its high-end SYNAPT Q-TOF and Xevo triple quadrupole MS systems. The Xevo G2-S models will begin shipping later this year.

Bruker introduced an upgraded version of its ultrafleXtreme MALDI-TOF/TOF, which features an improved 2 kHz smartbeam-II laser with twice the speed of the previous-generation laser. The laser provides a major increase in data-acquisition speed, which is particularly useful for tissue-imaging applications. Bruker has also paired the upgraded system with its new ImageID software workflow for molecular histology applications.

For LC/MS, Bruker introduced its first HPLC, the nano-Advance UHPLC, which is a bio-compatible, capillary and nano-flow system that can operate at up to 10,000 psi and has a gradient delay volume of less than 200 nL. The system, which will not be marketed as a stand-alone UHPLC, will be priced at $70,000 in addition to the price of the MS.

A little over a year after Shimadzu entered the triple quadrupole LC/MS market (see IBO 3/31/11), it has entered the triple quadrupole GC/MS market with the GCMS-TQ8030. The GCMS-TQ8030 combines the front end of Shimadzu’s successful QP-2010 GC/MS with the back end of its LCMS-8030 triple quadrupole LC/MS to produce a system with a scan speed of 20,000 u/sec and 600 multiple reaction-monitoring transitions per second. The electrospray ionization (EI) version will be priced at $185,000, while the chemical ionization version will cost $217,000. The EI version of the GCMS-TQ8030 is upgradable to the CI version. Both systems will begin shipping in September.

Shimadzu also introduced two triple quadruple LC/MS systems. The LCMS-8040 is a higher-sensitivity version of its benchtop LCMS-8030 and features an improved collision cell and ion optics. It has a faster scan speed of 15,000 u/sec and polarity switching speed of 15 msec. The LCMS-8040 has a list price of $227,900 and will begin shipping in August.

At the high end of the market, Shimadzu introduced the LCMS-8080, which is configured as a vertical-standing floor system, including the vacuum pumps. It features Coaxial Hot Gas ionization and Host Source Induced Desolvation that provide the highest sensitivity of any of its systems. Shimadzu hopes to be shipping the LCMS-8080 in the fourth quarter and has not yet determined pricing.

AB SCIEX has been on a tear in recent months, introducing numerous new instruments, coming to a crescendo at ASMS. On the Q-TOF side of the market, the company introduced the TripleTOF 5600+ MS, which incorporates AB SCIEX’s SelexION ion mobility technology and utilizes faster scanning speeds and improved software to enable its MS/MSALL with SWATH acquisition workflow. This new workflow, combined with the resolution of afforded by the TOF mass analyzer, allows full-spectrum quantitative/qualitative analysis. The TripleTOF 5600+ is priced comparable to the 5600 at around $650,000. The company also showed its new 4600 TripleTOF Q-TOF system, which is for more routine analysis and was launched earlier in May at the Asia-Oceana Human Proteome Organization conference in Beijing, China.

In the tandem quadrupole MS sector, AB SCIEX introduced the 6500 triple quadrupole and Q-Trap MS models as its new top-end systems. The company claims the systems provide, on average, 10x the sensitivity of the 5500 and have 20x the dynamic range. The primary improvement in the new systems is the new Ion Drive detector. The models will be priced slightly above the equivalent 5500 systems.

Introduced in April, Agilent’s 8800 triple quadrupole ICP-MS was the company’s focus at ASMS (see sidebar). Agilent also introduced its Automated Card Extraction System LC/MS for dried blood spot analysis, which was developed with Prolab. It consists of a CTC autosampler, 1200 LC and 6400 triple quadrupole MS.

Thermo Fisher Scientific introduced new systems on both the GC/MS and LC/MS sides of the market. The TSQ 8000 triple quadrupole GC/MS is a fast-scanning system designed to match up with Thermo’s Trace 1300 GC series (see IBO 3/31/12). It is intended for routine analyses in areas such as food safety and environmental analysis. The focus of the design of the TSQ 8000 is uptime, and it includes a dual filament and the ability to remove the full ion source without venting.

As for LC/MS systems, Thermo introduced the Exactive Plus LC/MS, which now offers the same 140,000 FWHM resolution as the Q-Exactive LC/MS. The Exactive Plus also offers improvements in mass range (6,000 m/z versus 4,000 m/z) and double the scanning speed of the previous-generation system, making it compatible with fast chromatography systems. The Exactive Plus is upgradable to the Q-Exactive. Both the TSQ 8000 and Exactive Plus are now shipping.