Malvern's recently launched Synirgi system underlines the continuing migration of NIR-CI technology from its specialist roots into routine use as a highly desirable, quantitative analytical tool.
Malvern Instruments has held the inaugural meeting in Europe for users of its near infrared chemical imaging (NIR-CI) systems.
The one-day event, which took place on 13 June 2007 was hosted by AstraZeneca in Macclesfield, UK.
Malvern customers from some of the world's major pharmaceutical companies joined Malvern's technical and scientific teams for a program that included oral and poster presentations on the application of NIR-CI, and the opportunity to exchange experiences and ideas.
During the first sessions, presentations from users included: 'Chemical imaging and quality by design'; 'Moving NIR chemical imaging from lab to process-based methodology'; 'Applications of NIR imaging in drug development'; and 'Content uniformity determination'.
The final parts of the day were devoted to instrumentation and software, together with a session on morphological imaging.
Linda Kidder, Malvern's product manager for chemical imaging systems, felt that the day was extremely valuable.
"This was our first chemical imaging user meeting in Europe and we were very pleased with the response from our customers," she said.
"Attendees came from a number of different European countries and shared their experiences through oral or poster presentations.
"The pharmaceutical industry is currently the biggest user of Malvern's chemical imaging systems and it was good to hear more about the various applications for which they are being used".
A similar meeting will be held for chemical imaging users in the United States later in the year.
The hallmarks of Synirgi are its rugged construction with no moving parts, modular software that enables the development of turnkey solutions, and expandability options for automation accessories.
Since NIR chemical imaging provides robust, reliable and automated data collection that is coupled tightly with quantitative, statistical, objective, reproducible and automated data processing tools, it is highly suited for routine analytical measurements.
Synirgi is designed with this in mind.
