Waters recently unveiled the latest addition to its family of ACQUITY Ultraperformance LC (UPLC) systems, the H-Class. It joins the suite of products, which includes the original ACQUITY UPLC system, the nanoACQUITY system and the PATROL UPLC process analyzer.

In terms of product performance, the H-Class bridges the gap between Waters’s Alliance HPLC and ACQUITY UPLC systems. This is somewhat of a surprise to the market, which has been accustomed to seeing Waters produce the highest-performance systems to address the most challenging applications.

Instead, Waters designed the H-Class to target routine HPLC applications. The system features the Quaternary Solvent Manager and Sample Manager with Flow-Through Needle. The H-Class is the first ultra-HPLC (UHPLC) system to employ a quaternary pump, which allows users to quickly switch between methods using a range of eluents or solvents already plumped into the system. With the optional solvent select valve, up to nine solvents can be used. The Sample Manager’s unique flow-through needle design delivers high-precision injections at the highest UPLC pressures.

The introduction of the ACQUITY UPLC H-Class system is an important step in furthering the adoption of UPLC technology and the use of sub-2 µm particle columns. UPLC has been proven to perform the work of up to three standard HPLC systems. The original UPLC system, which employs a binary pump, has certainly been a boon to the market, and is perhaps considered the premier choice for LC/MS/MS and other high-end research applications. However, there are still larger untapped markets that have yet to consider UPLC, such as methods development, quality control, analytical services and other mainstream applications.

With the ACQUITY H-Class, end-users will be able to standardize their HPLC applications under a single platform—at least, Waters hopes they will. According to Waters, the H-Class provides a seamless upgrade of chromatographic capabilities. It allows a user to take advantage of high separation efficiency without fundamentally modifying HPLC workflows. It requires less bench space, less energy and up to 95% less solvent usage.

The ACQUITY UPLC H-Class system fully supports standard HPLC columns, as well as the range of ACQUITY columns that include three particle substrates and 11 chemistries, which are scalable between HPLC and UPLC particle sizes. As a result, end-users will be able to run existing applications on the H-Class system, and the end-user, when ready, can migrate to UPLC conditions. Waters has also developed the ACQUITY UPLC Column Calculator that facilitates methods transfer to UPLC by scaling the gradient or optimizing separations for speed or resolution.

Over the past six years, since the introduction of the original ACQUITY UPLC (see IBO 3/15/04), IBO has observed a strong shift toward fast separations and UHPLC systems. In the early years of the technology, the demand for UHPLC systems consisted of early adopters and life science–related applications, and it was surmised that UHPLC was a niche technology. Today, most of the major HPLC vendors, including Agilent Technologies, Dionex, Shimadzu, Thermo Fisher Scientific and others, offer UHPLC systems. The market is fast approaching half a billion dollars—hardly a niche market—and is perhaps cannibalizing the market for standard HPLC systems.

Could the addition of the H-Class to the family of ACQUITY UPLC products spell the end for standard HPLC systems? Not likely. UHPLC technology is not for everyone; not everyone needs faster runs or has the throughput to justify the system. In fact, many end-users are still very content with their HPLC systems, some of which are more than 15 years old.

However, the UPLC H-Class is expected to strengthen Waters’s position as the pre-eminent source for LC systems against its chief rival, Agilent. In a not so obvious way, the H-Class is not only enabling HPLC users (particularly Waters’s Alliance users) with UHPLC capabilities, but the system is also positioned to transition end-users of competitive systems, like Agilent’s 1200 Series HPLC, to the ACQUITY platform.

For a UHPLC system, Waters has aggressively priced the H-Class system with a price point that is closer to standard HPLC systems. The ACQUITY H-Class is manufactured in Singapore, which helps to keep the cost low. Waters has indicated the H-Class is a 5%–7% premium in price to standard HPLC systems, but considering the system can replace between two and three HPLC systems, the H-Class is quite compelling.

In a time when industry is searching for areas to cut costs, yet continue to increase productivity, the introduction of the ACQUITY UPLC H-Class could very well be like Art Caputo, president of the Waters Division, stated: “The right instrument at the right time.” Actually, the time might already be here, as the H-Class is ready for shipment now; a fairly unusual approach for a new product introduction. But after several years of development and with over 40 systems at beta sites, Waters exudes confidence. A game changer may be in the making.

Chart: ACQUITY UHPLC H-Class

Operating flow rate range 0.01-2.00 mL/min

in 0.001 mL increments

Maximum operating pressure 15,000 psi up to 1 mL/min

9,000 psi up to 2 mL/min