- Decrease in cost per sample up to 90+ %.
- Increase in productivity by a factor of 10+.
- Volumetric (gravimetrically controlled) liquefied monomers dispensing(e.g. butadiene, isoprene, solvents and metalorganics) into different disposable reactor formats.
- 4-Needle Head for volumetric liquid handling and sampling.
- Ventilated hood for inert atmosphere.
- Dispensed amount, temperature, time…, and other data are stored in a read only log file.
- Easy access to data with a convenient interface to pull results into Excel or virtually any other software.
- Interface to DOE.
Double-Piercing Needle Technology
Enhance your Efficiency and Productivity with our Workflow Solutions!
A typical workflow involves addition of solvent(s), additive(s) and monomer(s). These compounds are located in reservoirs outside the platform or in bottles on the tray. All steps involving liquid handling can be performed in an automated fashion, as well as the inertisation of the atmosphere inside the platform.
In this context, implementation of gloves and an air lock creates a glove-box type system, and so the user can remove the filled reactor vessels and introduce empty ones to run a new sequence without the need of re-doing the full inertisation of the whole chamber. Real-time monitoring of the weight of the reservoir bottles outside the platform provides additional control on quantities dispensed, as well as a safety trigger to stop the application in case a reservoir is empty.
In order to prevent liquid gas loss, vials or reactors are sealed with e.g. crimp caps with thick septa. Filling closed reactors with these thick septas is a challenging task. For the dispense of liquids, this problem can be solved by using a proprietary Double-Piercing Needle Technology. On the other hand, when liquefied gases such as butadiene need to be dispensed, our high-pressure liquid-handling system needs to be used. In both cases combined with a balance for weight counter checking. A reactor vessel filled in such a way can then be used for polymerisation screening tests at medium pressure and at high temperature, without any leaking from the septa.
Liquid handling using ambient pressure pumps
| Solvent | Asp./Disp. Speeds/mL/min-1 | Target volume/mL | Dispensed volume/mL1 | stdev/mL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Solvent 1 | 125/250 | 140.0 | 140.12 | 0.06 |
| 100.0 | 100.02 | 0.03 | ||
| 50.0 | 49.95 | 0.02 | ||
| 50/100 | 10.0 | 9.98 | 0.01 | |
| 5.0 | 4.99 | 0.01 | ||
| 2.0 | 2.00 | 0.01 | ||
| 1.0 | 0.99 | 0.01 | ||
| 0.5 | 0.50 | 0.01 | ||
| 0.2 | 0.20 | 0.01 | ||
| Solvent 2 | 125/250 | 140.0 | 139.95 | 0.06 |
1 Average of 10 dispenses, counter weighed on analytical balance
Liquid handling using high pressure pumps
| Gas | Asp./Disp. Speeds/mL/min-1 | Target volume/mL | Dispensed volume/mL1 | stdev/mL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Butadiene | 20/20 | 5.5 | 5.49 | 0.01 |
| 15.1 | 15.08 | 0.02 |
1 Average of 10 dispenses, counter weighed on analytical balance
Customer testimonial
“Automated reaction preparation in disposable polymerization reactors with liquefied butadiene could be performed in a fully automated procedure, achieving the required throughput by automated injection of severalliquid compounds and liquefied butadiene. Reproducibilities and polymerization conversions are excellent andagreement with the manual procedure.”
