Among the many products at Pittcon released within the last six months of the show, IBO has selected three that stood out for innovation, technical achievement and commercial potential. This year’s top three products offer convenient solutions to technical bottlenecks and limitations.

Shimadzu Nexera UC

IBO’s top product pick for Pittcon is Shimadzu’s Nexera UC (Unified Chromatography) on-line SFE-SFC. IBO selected this product for its ability to shorten and automate the SFE-SFC workflow. The system allows automatic extraction of up to 48 samples and seamless transfer to SFC/MS analysis. The automated Nexera UC system reduces sample pretreatment to as little as five minutes compared with over half an hour for typical systems, according to the company. The on-line SFE replaces laborious soxhlet extraction with a simple “set it and forget it” method that can inject samples directly into the SFC. The system has shown particular promise in applications such as the analysis of pesticides, cannabinoids and dietary supplements, as well as drug delivery, the search for disease biomarkers, trace additives in polymers, drug-discovery research and cleaning validation. The system will begin shipping in June and is priced from $150,000 to as much as $500,000 when combined with a triple-quadrupole MS system.

PANalytical Zetium XRF

The Zetium XRF system from PANalytical (Spectris) replaces the Axios WD-XRF and introduces novel multitechinque functionality, offering ED-XRF, WD-XRF and microanalysis with a 0.5 mm spot size and mapping features on the same instrument. The new capabilities can be expected to increase throughput by allowing simultaneous analyses and to expand end-users’ testing options. As an example, free-lime measurement is achieved using transmission XRD, providing greater analysis of the entire sample than more typical reflectance measurements. The combination of these usually separate measurements is enabled by SumXCore technology, involving both hardware and software integration of the ED, WD and XRD functions. Five industry-specific additions are available. The price of the system, set to begin shipping the week after Pittcon, ranges from roughly $150,000 to $250,000.

Lab Minds Revo

An automated system for the preparation of liquid solutions, Revo from Lab Minds is another of IBO’s selections for top products. The Revo can help maintain quality standards of solution preparation, eliminating the need to purchase many reagents from third-party sources, for long-term time and cost savings. The multimodule unit combines input systems that measure dosing accuracy of both liquid and solid reagents. The unit combines an integrated water purifier, liquid-handling systems, mixing chambers and optional vacuum filters. System control, including calibration, cleaning and priming, is fully automated. The Revo will be available around April at a cost of approximately $90,000 per standard unit, with options for customization.