Analytical services

A variety of soil tests are provided by Natural Resource Management Ltd, at http //www.nrm.uk.com/nrm service.html 

The ability to analyse the compounds or materials coming out of a chemical laboratory or plant is an absolute essential. It is one of those disciplines that, when properly ran and designed to specifically meet the needs of a particular research, development or manufacturing area, can offer a very competitive advantage to the company. Therefore, the wholesale outsourcing of such a facility needs to be thought through very carefully. 

A good analytical resource is not cheap. It often has significant ongoing capital requirements for the provision of up to date instruments. It is therefore very important that only those distinctive elements and core competencies are retained within the company. This might well be a particular expertise in a chromatographic method or some advanced methods of mass spectrometry, without which the research could not continue. 

Other essential, but non-core analytical services, for instance simple elemental analysis, can easily be outsourced, as they are hardly ever rate determining in R D, and in addition a rapid turn around in testing is available from competent companies. Outsourcing does not necessarily mean that the work will be done off site. For instance, a visiting contractor can carry out routine environmental analysis of very small quantities of metals in the plant effluent, as is the case with other plant services. 

Procedurally the R D Manager will have to decide, after consulting the relevant staff, what analytical support will be required for each project in the portfolio for the coming period. Following discussions with the analytical services manager, the cost and availability of in house provision can be determined. Analytical services should be able to provide advice on where to get the most economical external provision of non-available analytical support. 

The R D Manager must ensure that the cost for the analytical support is in the budget for each project. Monitoring the cost and the use of analytical services is an essential task in budgetary control as it is easy for an R D team to run into overspend rapidly. It helps if data is provided to team leaders and chemists on the cost of the methods available in the analytical services group or from the outsourcing agency. 

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Product innovation absorbs considerable resources in the fine chemicals industry, in part because of the shorter life cycles of fine chemicals as compared to commodities. Consequently, research and development (R D) plays an important role. The main task of R D in fine chemicals is scaling-up lab processes, as described, eg, in the ORAC data bank or as provided by the customers, so that the processes can be transferred to pilot plants (see Pilot PLANTS AND microplants) and subsequently to industrial-scale production. Thus the R D department of a fine chemicals manufacturer typically is divided into a laboratory or process research section and a development section, the latter absorbing the Hon s share of the R D budget, which typically accounts for 5 to 10% of sales. Support functions include the analytical services, engineering, maintenance, and Hbrary. 

The freezing point of the coolant should be monitored for coolants in all types of service. Additionally, maintenance of the corrosion inhibitor levels is requited of the heavy-duty service coolants and the stationary engine coolants. Because corrosion inhibitors and combinations of corrosion inhibitors work most effectively at given concentrations and specific ratios to the other inhibitors, appropriate concentrations must be maintained to maximize corrosion protection. Many manufacturers of coolants for stationary engines, and manufacturers of SCAs, provide an analytical service to monitor the effective inhibitor concentrations in the system periodically. Recommendations can then be made for proper maintenance and inhibitor replenishment. 

We appreciate the assistance of Mr. Peter Vail, Food Science Laboratory, in providing the analytical services. 

Ashland Chemical Analytical Services Technology Bulletin 2531, Ashland Specialty Chemical Company, Dublin, OH (1998). 

At pION s analytical services laboratory, the pKa of a molecule (whose structure may not be known beforehand) is first measured by the TFA method, because very little sample is consumed. (Sometimes there is not much more than 1 mg of sample with which to work.) Only when the analysis of the data proves problematic do we repeat the measurement, the second time using potentiometry, where more sample is required. If any indication of precipitation is evident, either DMSO or methanol is added to the titrated solution and the titration is repeated 3 times (using the same sample), with additional water added between the repeats, to obtain different Rw values of the mixed solvent solutions. It has been our experience that if the TFA method fails and more sample is available, the follow-up pH-metric method always works. 

Thanks to Degussa Corporation Analytical Services for derivatization and GC analysis for selected samples. 

Quality assurance is the part of quality management focused on providing confidence that quality requirements will be fulfilled. It is all the planned and systematic activities implemented within the quality system, and demonstrated as needed, to provide adequate confidence that the analytical service will fulfil the requirements for quality. Quality assurance is the essential organizational infrastructure that supports all reliable analytical measurements. It encompasses... 

FeT], [S042]. Samples are submitted to Teck analytical services where ICP-MS for total and dissolved metals is completed. 

Voucher at the time of drilling. The well owner then redeems the voucher by collecting the necessary water samples, using the bottles and a methodology provided by the DENV, and submitting them to the DENV Analytical Services Laboratory for a standard inorganic chemistry analysis. 

In all 28 parameters were individually mapped alkalinity, aluminum, antimony, arsenic, barium, boron, bromide, cadmium, calcium, chloride, chromium, conductivity, copper, fluoride, hardness, iron, lead, magnesium, manganese, nitrate, pH, potassium, selenium, sodium, sulphate, thallium, uranium, and zinc. These parameters constitute the standard inorganic analysis conducted at the DENV Analytical Services Laboratory. 

Analytical Services Division at Chevron Research Company. 

Shah V.B. ASPEN Models for Solid Oxide Fuel Cell, Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell and Phosphoric Acid Fuel Cell Prepared by EG G Washington Analytical Services Center for the Morgantown Energy Technology Center under Contract No. DE-AC21-85MC21353, 1988. 

Need for Accurate, Rapid, Cost-Effective Analytical Service... 

Tills book has been written with two principal objectives in mind. First, to prompt analysts to think about their problems, and second, to review objectively how to solve them. The author has drawn on his experience to open up the subject to readers. If his examples have a specific a pphcation for you, that is a welcome bonus. If they simply force you to review the possibilities of automation, the author will have made a contribution to ensuring a real and definable analytical service providing unbiased, quality data in a reahstic turn-around time. 

Under a cooperative agreement, J. Robert Clark, Skyline Assayers and Laboratories S. Mary Doherty and Brenda Caughlin, ALS Chemex John Gravel, Acme Analytical Laboratories, Ltd Eric Hoffman, Activation Laboratories, Ltd. and Pierrette Prince, SGS Minerals Services contributed analytical services. 

The valuable discussions and technical assistance of Drs. Jon W. Belisle, Research Analytical Services, David L. June, Riker Analytical, and James R. Throckmorton, Agricultural Products Division of 3M, are gratefully acknowledged. I am also indebted to Dr. Frank H. Clarke of the Ciba-Geigy Corporation for an advance copy of his Apple program and helpful discussions. 

The costs of analytical services and facility repair, replacement, and modification were not included in this estimate (D10589F, p. 21). 

Does not include the cost of constracting a concrete pad for the unit. Included under analytical services. 

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