Breakthrough Cepure No-Pierce Septum for GC to Debut at Pittcon 2008

GC practitioners looking for cleaner, longer-lasting injection port septa will find a true breakthrough solution at Pittcon booth 3844. For the first time, Pawling Scientific Products, LLC will present the Cepure Zero™ "no-pierce" septum. It looks nothing like standard solid septa – and outperforms its competitors in service life, cleanliness, ease of use and cost/test.

Early users report five times the service life, no coring and resulting contamination, no downtime for conditioning and no needle breakage – even with brittle silica needles.

Also shown will be the ultra low-bleed Cepure NT pigment-free family of septa for autosampler vials.

No-Pierce Septum, Close-Up

Unlike the usual solid septum that gets pierced with every injection, the Cepure Zero features a molded O-ring design (patent pending). When properly installed, the aperture is squeezed closed by the mounting nut, thus creating a self-guiding path for the needle. During operation, the needle displaces, but never pierces, any septum material. Slight misalignments get gently redirected and once the needle withdraws, the aperture recloses tightly.

The no-pierce O-ring design intrinsically extends septum life and mitigates needle problems. Not having to puncture the septum means less wear and tear and also eliminates a key system error source. Septum cores have been shown to adsorb analytes in the instrument’s inlet, leading to poor peak formation and/or ghost peaks. These error sources have plagued GC work for decades.

The low-bleed characteristics of the Zero arise from the combination of the basic material of construction and proprietary processing. It begins with a low-bleed silicone containing far less siloxane than is found in other injection port septa. The process, from blending and molding to inspection and packaging, also includes several extra conditioning steps.

Cepure NT for Autosampling

Also debuting at Pittcon will be the Cepure™ LC/CG autosampler septum, which offers 60% better bleed characteristics than competitive red/white or HPLC low-bleed septa. Lower bleed reduces risk of sampling error and more reliable results.

The septa are available in all popular cap sizes and styles.

To ensure ultra-low bleed, Cepure NT septa are absolutely pigment-free and are put through a special bleed-reducing post-treatment just before packaging.