Pumping up automation down under

Based in Brisbane, Australia, Ai Scientific has flourished to become a leading designer and manufacturer of liquid automation equipment. One of its most successful products is the AIM3300 autosampler, a device that helps the company’s customers introduce automated sampling procedures into their respective analysers. A critical component of the AIM3300 is its integral peristaltic wash pump, which has been supplied by Watson-Marlow since the product was introduced. Reflecting the success of the 400DM2 pump is the fact that Ai Scientific is now producing its third generation autosampler, having sold over 5000 models worldwide since production began.

“There are two main reasons we use Watson-Marlow peristaltic pumps: reliability and cost,” explains Ralph Donaldson of Ai Scientific. “As the AIM3300 is an integral component of our customers’ analysers, it must be reliable. It needs to be capable of processing large numbers of samples every day without failure. If it breaks down, it reflects poorly on our customer’s instrument reliability. So we in turn must use high quality and reliable components in our products that will suit the environment and demands placed on us by our customers.”

The AIM3300 autosampler is designed to automatically transfer multiple liquid samples sequentially into a laboratory analyser and is used in a wide variety of different analytical techniques including: ICP spectroscopy; AA spectroscopy; TOC analysis; gel permeation chromatography; ion chromatography; trace mercury analysis; segmented flow analysis; and viscosity analysis. While each of these techniques has their own idiosyncrasies, they all typically require sample volumes in the range of 0.5-100ml for analysis.

The Watson-Marlow 400DM2 pump is used by Ai Scientific as an in-built wash pump for the AIM3300. When the sample probe is directed to a wash station, the pump is activated by the software to transfer fresh wash solution to the wash station. As many of the company’s customers are using their analysers to measure chemical trace levels, cleaning the probe between samples is very important to eliminate any cross contamination between samples.

More information about the Watson-Marlow OEM pumps range.