Thermo Launches Unique, Intelligent Atomic Absorption Spectrometers

Thermo Electron Corporation announces a significant extension to its AA Series portfolio with the launch of the new Si and Mi Atomic Absorption (AA) spectrometers.

The new instruments incorporate unique intelligent Spectrometer Qualification (iSQ), which is able to automatically test and confirm the spectrometer’s hardware performance prior to any analytical run. Thermo’s new Si and Mi AA spectrometers not only reduce the chances of having to re-run samples but also increase confidence in the quality and validity of the analytical data produced. Benefiting from a pre-programmable “wake-up” option, the iSQ software allows the tests to be carried out even before the operator arrives in the lab. The new Si and Mi AA spectrometers was showcased on Thermo’s booth #3733 at PITTCON 2006, Orange County Convention Center, Orlando, Florida, March 12-17.

These innovative instruments will be of particular benefit to high throughput elemental analysis laboratories in the environmental, food and beverage, petrochemical and metallurgy industries where the time and cost of rerunning samples due to potential instrument faults can be most crucial. Clinical laboratories, which might be sample limited will also benefit greatly from these new spectrometers. These revolutionary instruments also benefit customers who are new to AA analysis and may be unsure of how best to identify if their instrument hardware is operating as it should.

Thermo’s groundbreaking Si and Mi AA spectrometers bring added intelligence to the standard S and M Series AA spectrometers. Consisting of a unique motorized filter wheel containing a set of calibrated filters, the Intelligent Spectrometer Qualification (iSQ) module is simply mounted in the instrument providing automated system performance checks including wavelength accuracy, photometric stability, monochromator resolution and D2 background correction accuracy. In addition, the iSQ module performs lamp peaking and beam selector movement tests, while in the case of Zeeman instruments it performs polarizer orientation and repeatability tests.