Bruker Brings Exceptional High Performance Single and Triple Quadrupole Mass Spectrometry to Gas Chromatographers with the Release of the SCION Series

At the 2011 Florida Pesticide Residue Workshop, Bruker today announced the release the SCION TQ™ triple quadrupole and the SCION SQ™ single quadrupole mass spectrometers for gas chromatography (GC) detection.

Designed especially to enhance data quality and productivity for analysts working in routine testing and applied markets, these systems combine performance and value like never before in GC-MS. The SCION GC-MS platform offers revolutionary performance and ease of use, particularly for the food safety and environment monitoring communities, and represent an innovation leap in GC-MS technology.

The SCION series features the industry’s first ion ‘lens-free’ technology which makes these systems very easy to use, regardless of the level of mass spectrometry experience of the operator. The new SCION series is also significantly more sensitive and robust than previous GC-MS instruments, and comes in a very compact bench space saving footprint that is far smaller than for conventional GC-triple quadrupole MS systems.

Further enhancing the exceptional performance and value of the SCION TQ is Bruker’s innovative and unique Compound Based Scanning (CBS) technology. Ideal for the automation and optimization of quantitative analytical methods, CBS allows users to achieve high levels of sensitivity and quantitative precision while greatly reducing methods development and instrument set up time. By simply selecting the compounds from the compound library to add to the method editor, the unique CBS technology and expert software automatically sets up optimized MRM transmissions, and calculates the optimum cycle time, at a fraction of the workload for the method’s developer.

“With our unique Compound Based Scanning technology, we have finally taken a lot of the mystery and inefficiencies out of triple quads and MRM method development,” stated Meredith Conoley, GC-MS Markets Manager for Bruker’s Chemical & Applied Markets (CAM) division. “We believe that the SCION GC-triple quad system offers game-changing new technology, performance and productivity to gas chromatographers in the most compact triple quad on the market.”

The SCION SQ has been designed for extensive routine usage and shares many of the design innovations of the SCION TQ. This includes:

• A plug-and-play source for simple maintenance, or easy conversion from EI to CI operation.
• The new axial flow source improves systems performance, and lengthens the time between maintenance, even when handling today’s challenging matrices.
• An auto-focusing q0 ion optic element that uses helium molecules to enhance transmission into the first resolving quadrupole, and a high-capacity turbomolecular pump – to enable users to field-upgrade to CI capability.
• Extremely fast pump-down time, which increases productivity and reduces down-time.
• Unique multi-axis chemical noise cancelling design techniques, such as the 90-degree heated curved q0, the 180-degree collision cell and orthogonal integrated detectors, result in virtually zero neutral noise and ultra-sensitive detection limits.
• Advanced axial source design combined with the unique ‘lens-free’ ion path also significantly enhance the overall robustness of the SCION series. . The SCION TQ also incorporates a 180-degree collision cell design for a dramatically smaller instrument footprint; a critical need in emerging markets and for anyone choosing to upgrade their GC-MS technology.


Collin D’Silva, President of Bruker’s Chemical & Applied Markets division, commented: “The SCION GC-MS platform represent the fusion of rich histories of innovation and reliability to extend the high performance traditionally associated with research-grade instruments into a next-generation series of GC-MS instruments for routine use, ensuring that all gas chromatographers can benefit from these advances.”

“The SCION TQ is a revolutionary GC triple-quadrupole system that offers best-in-class triple-quad sensitivity and selectivity to the gas chromatographer in a system that is as compact, easy-to-use and robust as single quads,” concluded Dr. Rohan Thakur, General Manager of Bruker CAM’s GC-MS business. “We believe that the SCION TQ will lead and greatly accelerate the inevitable change-over of the GC-MS market to GC-triple quad technology to deal with today’s ever more challenging analytical problems and matrices in environmental, forensics, doping and food safety applications.”

For more information on the new SCION SQ and SCION TQ systems, please visit the company article page.