Partnership promises to revolutionise the routine use of NIR technology, as it allows customers access to global calibrations that have been derived from vast data sets
Central Laboratories and CRA-W have combined their technical knowledge and resources to produce a multi-million pound NIR spectral database, Ingot.
The companies say their partnership will revolutionise the routine use of NIR technology, as it allows customers access to global calibrations that have been derived from vast data sets.
Ingot offers new and existing users of NIR spectroscopy in the international milling, grain, animal feeds and food processing industries a highly cost-effective solution for measuring moisture, protein, ash, fat, fibre, minerals and starch and other nutritional values across a vast spectrum of raw materials and finished products.
Two of the most significant advantages of this development are that the calibration equations can be supported on all NIR hardware, and require only minimal customer maintenance.
Users will also benefit from having a calibration package that is very much a plug-and-play facility which will be constantly improved and developed jointly by Central Laboratories and CRA-W.
"NIR users can have total confidence in employing these equations as they have been derived from a vast spectral data base of proven calibrations backed up by accredited supporting wet chemistry," says Chris Piotrowski, director Central Laboratories.
"These calibration sets, which are essentially the power behind NIR, are built on seasonal, geographical and extensive product sample varieties collected over a decade, with the equations having been derived and validated by experts in the field of spectroscopy".
Announcing the signing of the joint agreement between Central Laboratories and CRA-W, Pierre Dardenne, head of the quality department at CRA-W said: "This is a very exciting development that offers for the first time a whole suite of accessible calibrations that can be used globally".
He continued: "As the world's population is predicted to increase dramatically, thereby placing greater demand on agriculturalists and food producers, NIR spectroscopy is destined to play a much more significant role in the producer supply chain.
"Ingot, being a continuing and evolving universal tool, can have a highly influential impact wherever NIR spectroscopy is used."
