Spotlight Particle Characterisation Keeping Quality Control Within Reach
Stable Micro Systems is extending its portfolio with the launch of the TA.XTExpress texture analyser. A user-friendly, cost- effective piece of apparatus, the TA.XTExpress makes texture analysis accessible to smaller manufacturers, offering-easy-to- interpret and reliable data relating to a range of small and/or lightweight applications. Possible tests include penetration, texture profile analysis, fracturing, cutting, extensibility and stickiness. The TA.XTExpress analyser comes with a choice of two software packages depending on the extent of analysis required.
The TA.XTExpress can be configured to the user’s individual requirements, so the data it collects form a valuable source of information for product development and quality control. The TA.XTExpress can be used online or in the laboratory, allowing manufacturers to assess textural quality, identify source and batch variation and predict consumer acceptability. The instrument offers a loadcell capacity of 5kg and has a speed range of 0.1 – 10.00mm/s. Standard textural parameters can be measured with Stable Micro Systems’ Expression software. For post-analysis capabilities, users should opt for the Exponent Lite Express software package, which is a project-based data recording and analysis software.
Jo Smewing, Applications Manager at Stable Micro Systems, commented: “Given the diversity of today’s laboratory industry and the current economic climate, the TA.XTExpress is being welcomed as a straightforward entry level instrument, which means texture analysis is no longer the preserve of large companies with deep R&D or QA budgets. This launch provides manufacturers with the benefits of objective, repeatable product testing, without a large capital outlay.”
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Particle Sizing with Static Laser Scattering Circle no. 144
New Proprietary Particle Size Measurement Method
When determining particle sizes a wide variety of techniques are used in which sieving may be the most popular. Sieving is a relatively simple technique, despite the fact that of course different instrumental approaches can be used. On the other hand, sieving is very time consuming and yields results only for a very limited number of particle sizes. All these and some others limit the accuracy and precision of sieve analysis and are reasons for this technology being widely replaced by light scattering methods - Fritsch ANALYSETTE 22 MicroTec plus Laser Particle Sizer, especially for sizing particles smaller than a few millimetres.
Static laser light scattering can be utilised to cover a particle measuring range from approximately ten or twenty nanometers up to a few millimetres. When a laser beam illuminates a particle, light scattering is observed and from the angular intensity distribution detected behind this scattering event, the particle size can be calculated. Therefore, laser light scattering is an indirect method of particle size measuring, just like many other techniques where some specific physical properties are measured; from the obtained values the particle size is then calculated.
When a large number of particles are packed together, in most cases some of the particles will stick together forming so called agglomerates. In general two different classes of dispersion are available: wet dispersion and dry dispersion.
Shimadzu Scientific Instruments introduced a particle size measurement principle called Induced Grating (IG), which allows users to measure nanoparticles with high sensitivity and reproducibility. Shimadzu’s new IG-1000 particle size analyser applies the IG method to measure single nanoparticles.
Typical measurement methods use scattered light, which decreases sharply for particles smaller than 100nm. The IG method eliminates this problem by using optical signals emitted by the diffraction grating formed by the particles. Even in the single nano region, users can obtain a satisfactory signal-to-noise ratio and stable measurement.
Shimadzu’s IG-1000 offers a simple three-step workflow to inject the sample, insert the electrode and begin analysis. Using the IG method, it can measure particles in the 0.5 to 200nm range in about 30 seconds, from measurement start to displayed results.
The IG method also ensures high reproducibility, which removes the imprecision that comes with particle analysis in the single nano range. Comparison with raw data of diffracted light is possible, so users can perform rough validation of the measurement results easily. The IG method is also resistant to contamination. Even if the sample is mixed with small amounts of foreign particles, data is captured reliably without filtering.
In addition, users can evaluate mixed samples with the IG method because the signal size does not depend on particle size. This is not the case for other methods based on scattered light, which can make the evaluation of mixed samples difficult.
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Some materials can hardly be measured in liquid. In those cases the dry measurement is a real alternative. Here the material is accelerated in an air stream through a so-called Venturi nozzle and expands rapidly behind the nozzle, where the highly turbulent stream rotates the agglomerates quickly and they collide with other agglomerates and particles. Due to these interactions, the agglomerates fall apart and single particles can be measured. However, compared to the introduction of ultrasound in water, this process is much less effective.
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New Particle Imaging and Analysis Instrumentation The new FlowCAM®
-XPL Birefringence Imaging and Analysis System (patent pending) from particle imaging and analysis
instrumentation manufacturer Fluid Imaging Technologies, features cross-polarising filters to reveal birefringent particles and cells that would otherwise remain invisible and undetectable or unclear under ordinary light conditions while boosting the image contrast vs. microscopy and other imaging techniques. The FlowCAM-XPL permits birefringent particles and cells to be automatically detected, imaged in high resolution, identified and differentiated from each other and from any non- birefringent particles and cells in a heterogeneous sample. Each image may be characterised based on dozens of measurement parameters in real time and saved along with its corresponding data set for in-depth analysis and collaborative review.
Developed for research scientists, laboratory managers, chemical engineers, food technologists, pharmaceutical chemists, water engineers and other professionals, the automated FlowCAM-XPL rapidly analyses large samples of particles and cells far faster than with manually operated polarised light microscopes and without any slide preparation while yielding more precise, reliable and statistically significant data. Anisotropic particles, such as solid and liquid crystals, sugars, starches, spices, fibers, polymers. ceramics, glass, pharmaceuticals and cells such as from muscle tissue, bone, Zebra and Quagga mussels, and butterfly wings ranging from .5um to 3mm in size, are ideal for study on the new instrumentation.
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