Month: January 2020

Recognized as a leader in Optics & Fluidics, IDEX Health & Science unveiled its new Film Degasser to the Fluidics industry last month. The Film Degasser is a component in the fluidic path of an instrument used to improve instrument precision and reliability by removing dissolved gases from fluids before they outgas and create problem-causing bubbles in High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) applications.

HPLC is a technology used to separate and identify mixtures of substances in a solution and measure individual components of a mixture – often helping test drugs for the Food and Drug Administration. The technology is also used to identify carcinogen compounds, pesticides and poisons to help improve water purification.

Using a high-efficiency membrane and unique flow channel design, the Film Degasser, which is about the size of a pack of gum, provides more performance and the lowest fluidic resistance in the industry.

Further enhanced with vacuum control methodology for consistent performance, the Film Degasser uses a patent-pending algorithm, which allows advanced control to select the optimal degassing efficiency for any HPLC separation method. It also enables users to integrate the degasser into the separation method control protocol and select a given efficiency for any HPLC system, which can be programmed to exact specifications for every application.

“As a market leader in degassing technology, our latest product is aimed at revolutionizing degassing in the industry. With it, we have created a versatile, high-performance system that is suitable for universal application,” said Saba Jazeeli, Senior Product Manager of the Analytical Instrument Market at IDEX Health & Science.  “It eliminates the design limitations of tubing-based degassers, delivering reduced pervaporation and a lower environmental impact by controlling the discharge of solvent vapors to the laboratory atmosphere.”

To learn more about the Film Degasser, click here

To watch a video of how the Film Degasser works, click here

BAND-IT in Chesterfield, United Kingdom was recently featured on Channel 5’s “Britain’s Greatest Bridges”.

At 2.2 km (1.37 miles) long, the Humber Bridge in Yorkshire, England, was the world’s longest single-span suspension bridge when it was completed in 1981. Longer than the Golden Gate Bridge in the United States, Humber Bridge is fortified with BAND-IT steel buckles and bands.

BAND-IT products are still used on the Humber Bridge today, as well as two other notable U.K. suspension bridges – the Forth Road Bridge in Scotland (2.5 km long) and the Severn Bridge (1.6 km) between South Gloucestershire in England and Monmouthshire in South East Wales.

The below image shows our Giant Band being installed on the suspension cables during the construction of the Humber Bridge some 40 years ago.

The TV series, which is produced by Viacom, focuses on six of Britain’s most iconic bridges and how they were designed and constructed.

If you’re located in the UK, you can watch the video here

 

 

The Fitzpatrick Company recently partnered with Siemens, a global electrification, automation and digitization provider, on the development of the control system on their Contained Compaction System (CCS) which is used by the pharmaceutical industry to create granulated powders during the manufacture of Oral Solid Dosage.

To watch a video of how the product works, click here

After years of success with its CCS family of roller compactors, Fitzpatrick team members wanted to update the control software and incorporate the latest automation advances to remain competitive.

The goal was to come up with a smaller, lighter machine –all managed by an easy-to-use automation system for monitoring and control, complete with reporting capabilities fully compliant with requirements mandated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States and matched by similar requirements of other national regulators. That’s when Arash Avvali, Senior Controls Engineer at IDEX MPT, tapped on Siemens Corporation.

“Siemens automation system is the most user friendly. It’s so much easier to troubleshoot. There’s way less wiring too. And the cost is lower as well,” Arash said. “Their Portal Software is also super powerful and has lots of great features. It’s so easy to work with”

A Safety Controller was put in place to anchor the solution, complemented with a Panel PC to help manage all the reporting requirements, and Comfort Panels to make operating the machines simple and intuitive, with an abundance of information made available. The whole solution was engineered to not only be extremely reliable, but also very flexible, giving the IDEX MPT team the ability to make refinements for customers tailored to their specific needs and requests.

In 2018, several customers were able to test prototypes of the product and praised the CCS for its compact size, ease of use and the ability to clean the product more regularly.

Orders from this project have boosted sales in 2019, keeping Fitzpatrick in a competitive leadership position in years to come.

The Fitzpatrick Company and Quadro Engineering Corp. are Units of IDEX Material Processing Technologies and have been trusted partners of the majority of the world’s top pharmaceutical, chemical and food ingredient processing customers. IDEX Material Process Technologies (MPT) includes four companies — Quadro, Fitzpatrick, Matcon and Microfluidics.