Analytica 2006: "instead of gigantomania, we are focusing on content depth and positioning Analytica as a force that promotes transfer between research and applications
Analytica is celebrating an anniversary.
Like its predecessors, the 20th trade fair for analysis, laboratory technology and biotechnology will give the industry new impetus and play an important role internationally as a basis for investment decisions in industrial and commercial laboratories.
Being able to deal with a growing number of tasks more quickly - and if possible at increasingly affordable prices - is especially important in the analysis sector.
For this reason, Analytica 2006 will focus on economical solutions.
That applies to the sectors for classic instrumental analysis as well as microscopy and special applications in process control and quality assurance.
Analytica 2006, which takes place from 25-28 April 2006, will present the latest trends including new techniques, new integration potential and a new understanding of the term service.
Analysis using standard browsers.
Researchers have been waiting for this for a long time: now they can control high-performance analysis equipment from their desks and retrieve data with a click of the mouse.
Additional steps or modules are no longer necessary to network the electronics that are used to take measurements and analyse the results.
In the latest generation of equipment for high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), all equipment can now be controlled using a standard browser and without having to install additional software.
A communications module that serves as a central control unit for the system provides the necessary intelligence in the form of a web server.
Entering the systems' IP address is all it takes to call up the start page over an intranet.
Once the user has logged on, he has access to all HPLC functions.
Methods and sample tables can be compiled and read out as XML files.
Online analysis: process control in real time.
Molecules that have to be analysed as quickly as possible, and if possible online, are becoming increasingly complex.
While conventional offline analysis provides information about a single state, online analysis makes it possible to follow an entire process and call up data in real time.
Besides being able to optimise processes with regard to efficiency and costs, in some cases byproducts can be discovered that would have gone undetected in a routine analysis of the products.
Not all processes are suitable for online analysis because it generally has to do without any form sample preparation.
Furthermore, having to deal with media that might be aggressive calls for sturdy equipment with a long service life.
These requirements are best met using optical techniques such as infrared, UV-Vis and Raman spectroscopy.
Specially customised software is able to analyse raw data automatically - even as part of a multi-component analysis that uses multiple measuring parameters to find the desired data in real time.
High-speed gas chromatography using short columns.
Even classic techniques like gas chromatography that are considered very advanced are being developed further.
Thanks to the use of capillary columns and efficient detection systems, this is now considered one of the most efficient separation and analysis techniques available.
Short analysis times together with unreached precision play an important role, particularly in the case of food and environmental samples.
Combined with mass spectrometry (GC-MS), this technique is unrivaled when it comes to analysing volatile mixtures.
During the past few years, shorter columns have made it possible to speed up separation considerably.
Two-dimensional GC using two columns with different retention capacities increases separation performance for complex compounds enormously: at the same time, both physical and physicochemical analyte properties such as boiling point, structure and polarity can be used during separation.
Capillary columns with increasingly smaller dimensions are also used for high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).
They make it possible to reduce solvent consumption on the one hand, and in most cases, only extremely small sample quantities are available on the other.
Capillary columns make it possible to perform analyses in the pictogram range.
And coupling them with systems such as a nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscope (LC-NMR) improves detection sensitivity.
New online coupling techniques for separating and analysing the structures of complex compounds can be used to identify even the smallest quantities of biologically active substances gently and without destroying the sample.
Service providers and full-line suppliers: new orientation for the industry.
Modern analysis equipment is becoming increasingly functional.
It is following the trend toward easy operation, high throughput rates and improved performance.
In a growing number of devices, the technology itself remains concealed from the user.
Analysis is now a service that many companies take advantage of instead of viewing it as a core competency, "although the analysis information provided by laboratories is the basis for decisions of considerable economic and ecological significance," explains Klaus-Peter Jaekel, head of BASF's worldwide competence centre for analysis.
Analytica 2006 not only showcases the latest analysis techniques and solutions, it is also a platform where industry representatives can discuss the latest applications with companies that need specific services and identify future requirements.
That includes distributing tasks and redefining the roles to be played by university research and industrial operations as well as the new market orientation in the chemical industry.
Klaus Peter Jaeckel from BASF, for example, is working with the German Chemical Society (GDCh) to strengthen the role that analysis plays at German universities.
In his opinion, developing new techniques and improving theoretical foundations should be a matter for the universities in the future, and industrial laboratories should use all aspects of instrumental analysis and, at most, develop techniques further to deal with specific problems.
In addition, besides putting their know-how to use in their own operations, more and more companies in the chemical industry are offering it as a service on the open market.
Even large corporations like Bayer are presenting themselves as service-providers in the analysis sector, a market that used to be dominated by small and medium-sized enterprises.
The analytics division at Bayer Industry Services (BIS) refers to itself as a 'full-line provider of analysis services that extend into the high-end range', and it offers the complete range of analysis services, from structure analysis projects to standardised testing and licensing procedures.
Besides analysing water, soil, air, waste water and waste, the portfolio also includes product-safety and material analyses.
Klaus Dittrich, managing director of Munich International Trade Fairs: "Analytica is the leading European trade fair for trends and innovations in the laboratory sector.
"The Analytica Conference and the Analytica Forum serve as platforms for the dialog between the scientific and commercial sectors.
"We are looking forward to presenting the industry and all of its facets to decision-makers from the analysis, laboratory-technology and biotechnology sectors in Munich from 25-28 April 2006.
"And instead of gigantomania, we are focusing on content depth and positioning Analytica as a force that promotes transfer between research and applications."
