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Weighing and Analysis in the Laboratory
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One of the factors influencing the taste of potato chips is the oil the chips are fried in. The free fatty acid (FFA) level in the oil increases when the oil is heated. The amount of FFA can greatly affect the taste of the end product. Maintaining a low level of FFA is then crucial. This article docu-ments a success story on how a professional demonstration and a free trial turned into a win-win solution.
Free Fatty Acid Test
With Excellence Titrator
Searching for a Replacement A mid-size potato chip manufacturer un-derstood the importance of testing the FFA levels in their oil but found their manual checks to be both time consuming and, at times, unreliable. In order to test the FFA level, the customer put a sample of used oil in an alcohol solvent. The sample was then heated to dissolve it and a manual color end-point titration was performed. This visual test proved quite unreliable as, when the oil became heavily fused, it turned dark making it difficult to see and determine the color end-point. In addi-tion to the visual aspects of this test, it also required a lot of glassware to heat and run the sample. This glassware re-quired stringent cleaning after each test and items were constantly breaking. The
customer needed a solution to cut down on the expense of replacing so much glassware along with the cost of lengthy and unreliable manual testing.
Trying is Believing
The customer contacted METTLER TOLEDO after meeting with the local sales representative at a trade show dedicated to the snack industry. The sales representa-tive explained how METTLER TOLEDO’s Titration Excellence model T50M could greatly speed up the customer’s overall labor and reduce breakable glassware costs. The sales representative provided a two-week trial knowing that the customer would never look back. The Titration Ex-cellence line offers many advantages such as One Click Titration™, Plug & Play
pe-Publisher
Mettler-Toledo AG
Laboratory & Weighing Technologies Im Langacher
CH-8606 Greifensee, Switzerland
Production
Segment Marketing LAB Switzerland
Technical articles
Mettler-Toledo AG
– Laboratory & Weighing Technologies – Analytical Instruments
11794420 40.12
Subject to technical changes. © Mettler-Toledo AG 08/08 Printed in Switzerland.
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ripherals and a built-in method database. As the FFA method is already built into the unit, the customer only had to install it into their lab and they were able to begin testing immediately.
A Real Time & Money Saver With the T50M, the customer is able to take a 10−20 g sample from their fryer to be weighed in a disposable polypropylene beaker that can be placed directly under the electrode for testing. With One Click, the unit begins running the FFA test and within minutes the end-point test is com-plete. After two weeks, the customer found that they were saving 20−30 minutes of technician labor time per analysis and,
as each sample is weighed in a disposable beaker, clean up time and breakage costs were also drastically reduced.
As the T50M is part of the modular Ti-tration Excellence line, the customer can move from a single titration to an auto-mated testing process simply by plugging in a sample changer. The titrator auto-matically recognizes that a new peripher-al has been added and is ready to resume testing without any further installation.
} www.mt.com/one-click-titration
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Moisture Control
in Lecithin Powders
Lecithin is a natural emulsifier frequently used in the food industry and an essential component in many chocolate and candy formulations. When it comes to moisture control in the production of food grade leci-thin, one of the world’s largest manufacturers - Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM) with its headquarters in Decatur, Illinois – relies on METTLER TOLEDO.
Lecithin - More Than an Emulsifier
Lecithin is a natural ingredient frequent-ly used in the food industry for its emul-sifying and stabilizing effects. Lecithin is an essential component in chocolate and confectionery production as it contributes to the smooth melt of chocolate, improves the softness of chewing gum, facilitates the cutting of caramels and minimizes oiling out of toffees. To meet the food manufacturers’ demand for different functionalities, ADM’s confectionary di-vision provides different grades of leci-thin. Archer Daniels Midland Company is one of the largest agricultural processors worldwide and provides over 1000 ingre-dients alone for food applications. HB43-S for Efficient Process Control
ADM researchers have developed an ul-tra filul-tration process for de-oiled lecithin in powdered form. The moisture content of the de-oiled lecithin must lie between 7-8% to ensure the powder remains easy-to-mix and can be stored well. Every two hours during the 24/7 operations, the production lines are controlled by sample analysis in the QC labs. The HB43-S halo-gen moisture analyzers reliably cope with
the large number of incoming samples. “Fast, simple, reliable – plus the METTLER TOLEDO service” these are the reasons why Mr. Mitch Ashley, Lab Manager East of ADM, has chosen the METTLER TOLEDO instruments. Based on good experiences with the approximately 30 HB43-S instru-ments at the Decatur Plant, Mr. Ashley is now standardizing his labs through-out the eastern USA with METTLER
TOLEDO halogen moisture analyzers. Today the *AOAC reference method is used for final product inspection only. The HB43-S halogen moisture analyzers ef-ficiently control the rest of the entire pro-duction process.
} www.mt.com/moisture
*AOAC = Association of Offical Analytical Chemists [sic]
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The First Class Choice
METTLER TOLEDO Ultra Micro and Micro Balances
n Kaspar, what is especially interesting about these new Ultra Micro Balances? “0.0000001 gram” – This value itself is difficult to comprehend! Pushing the boundaries of what is possible is a great technical challenge. Strangely enough, when I tried to understand that value my-self, I programmed the microbalance to microgram units. It is so much easier to read a weight of 0.1 µg. Samples in that weight ranges are incredibly small. It is amazing that such minute values can be weighed so precisely.
n What are the greatest challenges in de-veloping a microbalance?
To find people who have the feeling and the patience to get the required perfor-mances out of the balance. Developing a microbalance is not a simple task; it is a long term delicate job which requires engineering competence, knowledge and experience. Thousands of optimization and evolution hours are included in each new microbalance, which makes the dif-ference between a bad, good or excellent microbalance.
METTLER TOLEDO has recently introduced an enhanced generation of Ultra Micro Balances- XP6U, XP2U and Micro Balance XP6. These bal-ances are designed to boost efficiency, productivity and reliability in laboratories. We asked Kaspar Dieffenbacher, the project leader of the new Micro Balances, to tell us about this new innovation and to explain what the changes mean for end users.
Kaspar Dieffenbacher, Project Leader, R&D
Customizable colored touchscreen display and intuitive user interface.
Password protection and minimum weight control help to pass the audits easily.
SmartSens infrared sensors for hands-free operation.
n Reliable results – optimum measurement
performance in seconds
n Save costs – thanks to improved repeatability
and faster stabilization time
n Intuitive and easy operation – with color
touchscreen and SmartSens
n Passing audits easily – thanks to password
protection and minimum weight control
Kaspar Dieffenbacher, electronical engineer, joined METTLER TOLEDO on January 1st 1978. He leads several product development projects including the new Ultra Micro Balance.
n So what makes an excellent microbal-ance?
An excellent microbalance performs ex-cellently within basic parameters such as repeatability, nominal weight drift and linearity. It should be emphasized that the lower the weights are, the greater the relative errors. The differences between no weight and a microgram weight are so small that a tiny error could have drasti-cally adverse effects. For example, our new Micro Balance XP6U shows a 61 Million points resolution with repeatability below 0.25 µg at 200 mg load. This means that the error level is at around 0.00000125%.
n That’s really tiny. Isn’t it difficult to handle such a highly precise balance? In principal, such a microbalance can be operated like all other balances. It’s not as fragile as you’d think. The balance is very robust with its solid metal cover, careful manufacture and overload protection. It also goes without saying that the error related to incorrect handling could be immense. A good microbalance is only good when the operator takes care. Initial training and guidance is necessary in or-der to produce a good ‘micro weigher’. n Tell us what’s so special about the new XP Micro Balances in terms of features and benefits for our customers?
The new XP6/XP2U/XP6U set a new mile-stone in our microbalance development history. Firstly, users can lower the mini-mum allowed weight according to their tolerances due to repeatability improve-ment. In other words, our customers save costs particularly when weighing-in pre-cious or toxic samples. Secondly, we have reduced the stabilization time of the XP6
to 8 seconds. This not only maximizes sample throughput but also increases pro-ductivity. Lastly, we have integrated a color touch screen with the new Micro Balance. The clearly structured and customized color user interface and the SmartSens infrared sensors for hands-free operation help to avoid user errors and make more secure weighing possible.
n Thank you, Kaspar, for the informa-tion.
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Fast 96-Well Pipetting
Made Easy With Liquidator 96™
The new RAININ Liquidator 96™, a unique manual bench top system, provides an economical approach to high-throughput pipetting without the need for programming. Flexible and easy to use and with a small footprint, the RAININ Liquidator 96™ even fits inside a laminar flow hood for sterile applications.
Incredibly Fast and Accurate Liquidator 96™ adds outstanding qual-ity features to high throughput pipetting including many applications: plate & mother-daughter replication, reforma-tion from 96 to 384-well and back, wash-ing steps, dilutions and ELISA / EIA. The ability to pipette 96 wells at once is vital for time critical assays such as ELISA: all 96 reactions can be started and stopped simultaneously.
Saves Time and Money
Liquidator 96™ is a manual 96-chan-nel pipetting system that speeds up your workflow dramatically. The time required to pick up and dispense 100 µl of liquid in all 96 wells is less than 15 seconds – faster than all other manual pipetting methods and expensive 4 and 8-channel robots. All SBS footprint plates in 96 or 384 well formats can be used.
Always Ready To Go
Liquidator 96™ is ready for immediate access by all users, whether experienced or new to the instrument. An intuitive manual device, Liquidator 96™ requires no expensive operator training, computer software compliance or even electricity. Liquidator 96™ can be used almost any-where, including laminar flow cabinets or on clean benches.
Functional, durable and simple to oper-ate, Liquidator 96™ will give reliable and reproducible measurements.
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Density and Refractive Indexes
Simultaneous and Reliable
Schülke & Mayr GmbH, located in the north of Hamburg, Germany, specializes in the production of antiseptics, disinfectants, medical skin care products and technical preservatives. In their process and system assurance department, METTLER TOLEDO’S DR40 and SC1 has helped to save up to 90% of their measuring time.
Comprehensive Quality Control With almost 120 years of experience, Schülke has fabricated approximately 200 different products in the form of solutions, creams, gels and suspensions. “The determination of product-specific features such as density and refractive in-dex plays an important role for in-process control during production as well as iden-tity checks prior to packing”, explaines Stefan Jordan of Schülke’s process and systems assurance department. Every product has specific characteris-tics, for example density and refractive index, which are examined according to the relevant test procedure. If a product complies with the specifications, it will be packed or filled upon release by Quality Control. Prior to packing or filling, the product-specific data are checked once again. The product must not be packed or filled until all determined values comply with specifications. The final release of the finished product will be given after yet another quality control test.
Enormous Time Saving
Schülke performs between 10 and 60 measurements per day with DR40 com-bined density/refractometers and the SC1 automatic sample delivery and cleaning unit from METTLER TOLEDO. As of 2007, all existing units were equipped with an additional PPU (power purge unit) pump which decreases the cleaning and drying time substantially in comparison with the old manual method they used years ago. By employing the DR40/SC1, Schülke achieved time savings of up to 90% in determining density and refractory index
As summarized by Mr. Jordan, the de-cisive factor for the acquisition of three systems from METTLER TOLEDO, com-prising the DR40 combined unit and the SC1 sample changer, was that the density and refractive indexes can be determined simultaneously in a quick and simple way whilst simultaneously providing safe and reliable results.
Mettler-Toledo AG
Laboratory & Weighing Technologies Im Langacher CH-8606 Greifensee, Switzerland Mettler-Toledo AG Analytical Instruments Sonnenbergstrasse 74 CH-8603 Schwerzenbach, Switzerland Your METTLER TOLEDO contact:
www.mt.com
For more information
Weighing Solutions and Analytical Instruments
New Products and Technologies
From METTLER TOLEDO
METTLER TOLEDO delivers powerful solutions that simplify work in labo-ratories around the world. Combining our state-of-the-art technologies with our applicative competence, we have a strong value proposition to make: accurate results and productivity second to none.
Manual Multi-Channel Pipetting
Increase productivity with the new Pipet-Lite™ Adjustable Spacer – the world’s only manual multi-channel pipette with adjustable spacing. Ideal for routine work in genomic, proteomic, tissue culture and cell culture applications, this pipette can easily alter the format spacing from 24-well to 96-well. Just a twist is all that’s required to change spacing!
www.mt.com/PipetLite-Spacer The First Class Choice For Valuable Samples
Keeping sample weights as small as possible means tremendous cost savings when handling precious, degradable or toxic substances. The new XP6U/XP2U Ultra Micro Balance and XP6 Micro Balance are designed to boost efficiency and reliability as well as support network com-patibility.
www.mt.com/micro
One Click™ Water Determination Simple & Secure
Water determination is made simple and secure with the new line of Karl Fischer titrators offering unique Touch Screen operation with user specific Short Cut buttons. Every user can start his or her routine tasks using One Click™. The Solvent Man-ager is controlled by the titrator and exchanges the solvent and reagents without exposing the user to chemicals. The LabX titration laboratory PC software offers absolute data reliability, com-prehensive documentation and ease of tracking.
www.mt.com/Karl-fischer
Best Usability for Optimizing Pipette Calibration Process Thanks to Calibry v. 4.0
The new Calibry 4.0 software offers ease-of-use and the fast calibration of single- and multi-chan-nel pipettes. A brand new user interface optimizes software use in all steps of the pipette calibra-tion process. Calibracalibra-tion reports can be easily customized according to specific requirements. Automatic capture of environmental parameters ensures reliability.
