Cost per analysis

Finally, FIA is an attractive technique with respect to demands on time, cost, and equipment. When employed for automated analyses, FIA provides for very high sampling rates. Most analyses can be operated with sampling rates of 20-120 samples/h, but rates as high as 1700 samples/h have been realized. Because the volume of the flow injection manifold is small, typically less than 2 mb, consumption of reagents is substantially less than with conventional methods. This can lead to a significant decrease in the cost per analysis. Flow injection analysis requires additional equipment, beyond that used for similar conventional methods of analysis, which adds to the expense of the analysis. On the other hand, flow injection analyzers can be assembled from equipment already available in many laboratories. 

Other parameters that have been used to characterize column performance include the column pressure drop and the column flow resistance.1617 The column pressure drop is simply the difference in pressure observed when the column is or is not in-line. The column flow resistance normalizes for particle diameter, solvent viscosity, and column length. One may also wish to compare issues of cost per analysis and column lifetime in evaluating a column.18... 

Industrial analytical laboratories search for methodologies that allow high quality analysis with enhanced sensitivity, short overall analysis times through significant reductions in sample preparation, reduced cost per analysis through fewer man-hours per sample, reduced solvent usage and disposal costs, and minimisation of errors due to analyte loss and contamination during evaporation. The experience and criticism of analysts influence the economical aspects of analysis methods very substantially. 

Ability to reduce labour, time and cost per analysis... 

Major advantages of LVI methods are higher sensitivity (compare the 100-1000 iL volume in LVI to the maximum injection volume of about 1 iL in conventional splitless or on-column injection), elimination of sample preparation steps (such as solvent evaporation) and use in hyphenated techniques (e.g. SPE-GC, LC-GC, GC-MS), which gives opportunities for greater automation, faster sample throughput, better data quality, improved quantitation, lower cost per analysis and fewer samples re-analysed. At-column is a very good reference technique for rapid LVI. Characteristics of LVI methods are summarised in Tables 4.19 and 4.20. Han-kemeier [100] has discussed automated sample preparation and LVI for GC with spectrometric detection. 

Together these subsystems can give rapid distinction of bacteria at near strain level after a single working day s operation, meaning less than eight hours from the time a sample arrives at the lab. The equipment is expensive. Flowever, the cost per analysis is low due to automation and rapid operation. Enormous benefits could obtain from the availability of such integrated, automated systems for routine analyses in clinical or public health laboratories. 

Turn around time and customer service analysis Cost per analysis computation Equipment utilization analysis... 

One aspect that has limited the use and introduction of process analyzers, and in particular FTIR analyzers, has been the high cost of the analyzer, and the resultant high cost per analysis point. Many process analyzer installations are financially evaluated in terms of cost per analysis or analysis point, as well as cost of ownership and the rate of payback. Typically, these costs need to be kept as low as possible... 

The opportunity to reduce the cost per analysis point can be very important for certain applications. One option with FTIR is to use sample stream multiplexing with a manifold system. For gas-based systems this is very straightforward, and does not impose a high cost overhead. Liquid systems are more complex, and are dependent on the nature of the stream involved, and material reactivity, miscibility and viscosity are important factors to consider. As noted previously, with the introduction of new, miniaturized technologies, the hope is that newer, less expensive devices can be produced, and these can provide the needed multiplicity to reduce the cost per analysis point to an acceptable level. 

The cost per analysis point and the projected payback are only two metrics used to evaluate the feasibility of installing a process analyzer. If a spectrometer replaces an existing service intensive analyzer then that is a positive situation. Also, because of the flexibility of infrared analyses, it is feasible that a mid-IR analyzer might replace several existing analyzers it is a case where direct chemical information from IR can be more important than certain inferential methods that only provide indirect information. Also, if the only other... 

Speed, The rapidity with which an analysis can be performed and utilized (including interpretation, whether manual or automatic) is particularly important in industrial chemical analysis. In a laboratory setting, this may not be quite so urgent, but even then time is a major criterion where, in most cases, special personnel are held up in other activities, awaiting the results of an analysis, Frequently higher cost can be justified on the basis of less time and lower personnel costs per analysis made. 

What are the available reference laboratory methods, and for each what is the error of the method, and what is the cost per analysis ... 

Once the figures for an FTE are established, the cost corresponding to the number of samples that can be analyzed per day is calculated. Figure 3.6, illustrates a cost profile for LC/MS analyses up to 100 samples per day. This model indicates analysis throughput from a quantitative process approach and provides a fiscal illustration of the impact the analysis may have on drug development. For example, LC/MS-based strategies, which have been demonstrated to increase the rate of sample analysis by 2- to 10-fold in the pharmaceutical industry, can be expected to reduce the cost per analysis by a corresponding ratio. 

The wide application of atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) in the determination of various metallic elements in diverse media is based primarily on the following factors (a) in most cases AAS has sufficient sensitivity for precise determination of the metallic elements (b) AAS is relatively free from interference (c) the required investment for establishing AAS capabilities is small and (d) the cost per analysis is usually low in comparison with other techniques. The determination of the concentration of metals in the air of workplace environments is achieved by AAS analysis of particulates that have been collected by filtering the air of workplace environments with the exposed filter dissolved in acid. 

These are often multi-parameter analysers and enable several determinations to be carried out on the same sample furthermore, the number of determinations can be programmed for each individual sample. An aliquot of the sample is placed in a transparent measurement cuvette following addition of the reagents, a colorimetric measurement is then carried out directly on the cuvette. The analysis rate varies from 50 to 1000 determinations per hour, and the principal applications are carried out either by chemical or enzymatic analysis. The volumes of reagent required for sequential analysis are small by comparison with FTA which substantially reduces the cost per analysis, particularly for enzymatic determinations. 

To simplify these calculations, the capital cost of the instrument may be amortized over 5 or 6 years and maintenance costs ignored. The average daily cost can then be calculated and will be the same whether the instrument is used or not. Reagent costs are simple to calculate and are usually small in relation to other costs. Examples of labor and equipment costs of 5 commercial flame photometers, used to measure plasma sodium and potassium simultaneously, were given by Broughton and Dawson (B18). With small numbers of analyses, the least expensive instrument was the cheapest to run, but despite wide differences in capital outlay and labor requirements, the cost per analysis for the 5 instruments... 

The UV photometer has been proposed both in the German and Czech case studies to support the supplementation and validation of the risk assessment. In order to show the necessary number of uses at which the costs per analysis of UV photometer move below the costs of traditional methods, the cost function for the UV photometer has been calculated. The costs of using the UV photometer are rather high if it is used for few analyses but fall considerably with higher numbers of uses. This cost function is then compared with the linear cost function of spot sampling where the cost of laboratory analysis (list prices) have been considered. 

In cost per analysis, as a result of the high degree of automation. 

Although the ICP is somewhat more sensitive in terms of reported detection limits than DCP, the former cannot tolerate as high a dissolved solids content as the latter. Therefore, on the original silicate materials, the detection limits are similar. Another advantage of PES compared to AA is that commercial PES spectrometers can be configured for simultaneous multi-elemental analysis, while the current commercial multi-elemental AAs are sequential. The base price of PES equipment is higher than AA but if the sample load is high, the increased productivity of multi-elemental PES may result in a lower cost per analysis. 

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