Posted in IC on Apr 26, 2007
Metrohm, Ltd., a Swiss based company, recently introduced a new Ion Chromatography (IC) System – ProfIC.
Metrohm claims it as “the first professional IC system with intelligent system components:
Wow… When I got to this part about intelligence in iColumns I burst into laugher. Is this a joke? Are they trying advertise this IC to teenagers or scientists? I can just picture some PR/Marketing guy from Metrohm trying to come up with a new name:
“Hmm, what’s the most popular and trendy name these days? Aha! Anything that has “i” in the front like iPod, iPhone and etc, so why don’t we name our first “intelligent” IC column – iColumn! ”
Don’t get me wrong, it sounds like a great system and I would trade it in a second for my old and dying Lachat IC that we use for water analysis.
The system has three major components:
The 850 Professional IC is compact and modular:
These intelligent hardware components are monitored through the MagIC Net software that observes the entire system and ensures that the control cards for calibration and samples are adhered to and documented in an FDA compliant form. Should an important control parameter deviate from a predefined range than the analyst is informed by email or even SMS(!). Particular attention has been give to the long service interval of the ProfIC instruments and these can be observed by the MagIC Net software.
The ultrafiltration cell can be directly mounted onto the sample processor and equipped with a membrane filter of pore size 0.15µm as standard is suitable for samples containing a light to medium particle load. As the sample is delivered continuously at a high flow rate this alleviates the formation of filter cake on the membrane and increases the working lifetime.
I am a Mac person myself so I have not problem with the “i” names, but it just shows the lack of creativity on Metrohm’s part. They could have come up with something else and not use Apple like names. But in the end, mthims, you are right as long as I can rely on the instrument and the data it produces I am very happy
who cares about the names, as long as it works and does not brake. There is way too much electronics in the things where it shouldn’t be. The chip in anion column? That’s too much IMHO.
If Metrohm like the “i” naming this much, they should have released their software on Mac and called iMagIC