Most software for processing analytical data was developed with an interactive user in mind, and so the laboratory bottleneck has shifted from data collection to data processing and analysis
Advanced Chemistry Development (ACD/Labs) has unveiled the latest release of Automation Server, an enterprise utility that meets the processing and analysis challenges faced by today's laboratory via automated data collection, processing, and database population.
Eric Milgram, enterprise solutions product manager at ACD/Labs, illustrates the challenges faced by stating: "Scientific laboratories face continual pressure to become more productive, whether by processing more samples per unit time with fixed resources or processing a constant level of samples with decreasing numbers of personnel.
"Advances in hardware automation, such as autosamplers and sample-preparation robots, combined with increased robustness of analytical instrumentation, have helped scientists meet part of the productivity challenge.
"However, most software for processing analytical data was developed with an interactive user in mind, and as a result, the laboratory bottleneck has shifted from data collection activities to data processing and analysis".
Automation Server helps reduce this bottleneck by combining a modular architecture with the flexibility of an XML-based configuration utility to programmatically expose the powerful features of SpecManager tools, which include analytical data processing, chromatographic and spectral databasing, and intelligent integration of chemical structure and analytical data.
In addition to giving access to powerful analytical processing tools, ACD/Automation Server also enables greater processing flexibility by incorporating ChemBasic.
In addition to supporting a syntax that is similar to Microsoft Visual Basic, ChemBasic was developed specifically for working with chemical structures.
By exposing these powerful analytical processing capabilities and offering ChemBasic, Automation Server is described as a very flexible tool that can be tailored to fit very specific, challenging problems within an organisation.
Modules are available for processing NMR (1D and 2D), LC/MS, UV-vis, IR, Raman, XRPD, DSC, TGA, as well as a variety of other analytical data types.
In addition to supporting multiple analytical techniques, Automation Server also supports analytical data from a wide selection of instrumentation vendors.
Dr Milgram comments, "With the introduction of Automation Server, ACD/Labs is building upon a legacy of providing sophisticated ChemAnalytics tools for processing analytical data and, where necessary, integrating these data with chemical structures.
"Automation Server was developed for organisations that have a need for powerful ChemAnalytics solutions in conjunction with unsurpassed flexibility of implementation".
Antony Williams, vice president and chief science officer at ACD/Labs, adds: "ACD/Labs's tools for analytical data processing, true integration with chemical structures, and databasing of the extracted knowledge have delivered solutions to organisations for over a decade.
"With the introduction of Automation Server, ACD/Labs is providing support for those processes depending on automation, especially open access and higher-throughput laboratories.
"This year we will be making additional announcements demonstrating the benefits of such an approach to many sectors of the chemical and pharmaceutical industry as ACD/Labs continues to develop the ChemAnalytics platform."
