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pany put together an experimental prototype of an MS/MS instrument a few years ago but decided that it didn't fit into its overall strategy. "It really was a business decision that we made not to invest a whole lot more in it back at that time," says Catran, "and yet we don't want to lose touch with it. If it does emerge as a hot tech­nique, I certainly would not rule Hew­lett-Packard out from getting into that business."

Prices: On the way down? One negative for MS/MS up to now

has been the higher cost of the tech­nique relative to GC/MS. MS/MS spectrometers cost more than many laboratories want to pay for analytical instruments, although MS/MS offers productivity advantages over GC/MS that tend to offset the initial price dis­advantage.

Nevertheless, many MS/MS practi­tioners do expect an eventual price re­duction. According to Fred McLaf-ferty (Science, 1981, 214, 280-87), "I believe that. . .demand will bring the price of computerized MS/MS instru­ments down to $50,000; the present price appears to be the major deter­rent to MS/MS growth rivaling that of GC/MS and LC/MS."

Since it was first commercialized in the early 1960s, thermal analysis (TA), the measurement of physical proper­ties as a function of temperature, has become a standard technique in in­dustrial research and development laboratories for materials character­ization. TA can be used to character­ize polymers and plastics in composite materials, and industrial laboratories are increasingly using TA for quality control and product development work. With this increased industrial use, manufacturers are seeing a shift in market demand from sophisticated, versatile research-grade analyzers to instruments that offer the high pro­ductivity and low-cost data analysis needed for quality control applica­tions. In the past, manufacturers typi­cally provided only two products, a low-cost basic instrument with little or no data analysis capability and a more expensive, sophisticated research in-

"There has to be a big price reduc­tion," adds R. G. Cooks. "There has to be a big drop from the current prices of triple quadrupoles, for example. Whether the triple quadrupoles them­selves come out in cheaper form or whether an ion trap instrument with MS/MS software takes over is a differ­ent question, but there has to be a ma­jor price reduction. Finnigan's ion trap and Hewlett-Packard's mass-selective detector represented big steps toward cheaper GC/MS instruments, and the same volume-driven situation is going to cause MS/MS to come down in price. There have been too many tri­ple quadrupoles sold for that not to happen. The market forces are all there. There is too much demand and too much competition."

"Certainly, the intention of every manufacturer is to bring their prices down," responds Bori Shushan of Sciex. "GC/MS is down as low as $50,000 per unit, which is a remark­able price for such a powerful type of instrument. But we'll never catch up to the GC/MS vendors. They'll always have the drop on us, because they have one less stage of mass spectrome­try to build in and supply software for."

S.A.B.

Industrial laboratories

are increasingly using

TA for quality control

and product

development work.

strument. But several manufacturers, including Du Pont, Perkin-Elmer, Mettler, Stanton Redcroft, and Om-nitherm, are now offering TA systems that allow users to tailor a system to their specific needs.

For example, Du Pont introduced a new modular design for its TA sys­tems last November at the Eastern Analytical Symposium. Although it

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still offers the basic Model 9000, which has no data analysis capability, the company has developed a menu of capabilities with complete upgrada-bility for its higher priced Model 9900. The new 9900 offers more than 100,000 possible system configura­tions, including seven analysis tech­niques and 12 data analysis software routines. Low-cost systems are also available for $8000 less than in 1984. Modules are available for differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), pressure DSC, dual-sample DSC, differential thermal analysis (DTA), thermogravi-metric analysis (TGA), thermome-chanical analysis (TMA), and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA). Accord­ing to David Chalmers, manager of Du Pont's thermal analyzer business, "the 9900 represents the first time us­ers can tailor a system to their current needs and then continually upgrade its capabilities without having to re­place the controller or other compo­nents, such as analysis modules."

The lower cost and expandability of the new system are the result of a new operating system Du Pont developed for its existing 9900 computer-ther­mal analyzer. Traditionally, the sys­tem controller's capabilities were fixed as either basic or fully configured, but the new operating system incorporates modularity into the controller portion of the TA system for the first time.

The simplest version of the 9900 is a single-tasking system that can per­form a series of tasks in sequence only. "From a cost standpoint, the basic single-tasking system will help make thermal analysis with data analysis ac­cessible to new users with limited bud­gets or needs," says Leonard Thomas, Du Pont's market development man­ager for the systems. "Yet as their needs grow, they can add capability in incremental steps with hardware and software options."

For example, users can add the si­multaneous run-analyze option, which provides the ability to simultaneously run samples while analyzing data from previous tests, and multitasking capa­bility. At the top of the line is a multi-module system that can operate up to four analysis modules simultaneously and perform data collection, analysis, and reporting functions all at the same time.

Perkin-Elmer recently introduced a new robotic system for use with its low-cost TADS series of TA instru­mentation. The robot allows analysis of 48 DSC samples without operator intervention and was specifically de­signed for applications involving qual­ity assurance and quality control (QA/QC), according to Mike DiVito, a

marketing specialist with Perkin-Elmer. The TADS Series is based on the new Perkin-Elmer 3700 Data Sta­tion, introduced in December 1985. Along with the DSC-4 RS Robotic System, the TADS Series offers mod­ules for DSC, TGA, TMA, DMA, and DTA. Each of these modules is de­signed with the high performance re­quired for QC applications.

On the high-priced end of the line, Perkin-Elmer offers the 7 Series, a modular high-performance TA system introduced about a year and a half ago. The system consists of the PE 7500 professional computer and a new line of redesigned analysis mod­ules. Perkin-Elmer took a slightly dif­ferent approach than Du Pont by choosing to modernize on the high end and introduce a completely new line of state-of-the-art instrument modules with totally new electronic designs, while Du Pont has maintained capa­bility between current analysis mod­ules and new-generation computers and software.

Like the Du Pont 9900, the 7 Series is capable of real-time multitasking and multimodule operation. So far, new modules are available for TGA, DSC, and TMA.

But unlike Du Pont, Perkin-Elmer has chosen to offer two distinct lines of computerized TA systems. Accord­ing to DiVito, the performance of the analyzers is very similar. The major differences are in the microcomputers used and the target markets. The TADS Series offers the budget-mind­ed user high performance at a lpw cost, while the 7 Series offers a high-performance system with complete multitasking capability at a higher price.

Mettler Instruments has gone a dif­ferent route than Du Pont and Per­kin-Elmer in designing its TA system. In a departure from the interactive, computerized systems that Du Pont and Perkin-Elmer have introduced, Mettler decided to go after the market for simple, easy-to-operate TA sys­tems with the introduction of its TA3000 in 1980. According to DaVid McMorran, marketing manager for Mettler's line of TA instrumentation, Mettler believes the largest growth market for TA is in manufacturing, where it can be used for QA/QC in process control, troubleshooting of the final product, and in the shipping and receiving department for checking in­coming and outgoing material.

With the large potential in the QA/QC marketplace, Mettler seems well positioned with its TA3000 sin­gle-tasking instrument, which consists of a TC-10A controller-programmer

414 A • ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY, VOL. 58, NO. 3, MARCH 1986

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COMPUTATIONAL METHODS FOR THE DETERMINATION OF FORMATION CONSTANTS edited by David J. Leggett This collection of tested programs spans the history of computer-assisted deter­mination of formation constants. Experts in the field supply detailed user instructions for programs derived from LETAGROP, SCOGS. MINIQUAD. and others. 0-306-41957-2/494 pp./ill./1985 $75.00 ($90.00 outside US & Canada)

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416 A • ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY, VOL. 58, NO. 3, MARCH 1986

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unit, an analyzer module, and a dot-matrix printer. DSC, TMA, and TG analysis modules can be easily inter­changed without the need for recali-bration.

"The simplicity of the TA3000 is due to the storage of the standard analysis programs in firmware rather than on disks, which requires the user to adapt each task by entering a lot of data," says McMorran. "Mettler de­cided to put standard programs on

Several manufacturers are now offering thermal analysis systems that allow users to tailor a system to their specific needs.

chips in the instrument. The advan­tage of this method is that once a pro­gram is there, it is permanent, barring the small probability of a circuit fail­ure."

With this month's introduction of a new graphics package at the Pitts­burgh Conference, the TA3000 will be able to collect and analyze data at the same time. The new TA70 software package will interface the TC-10A to an IBM PC computer and allow simul­taneous run-analyze operation as well as increased data storage and manipu­lation.

The growing market for TA instru­mentation has also caused Stanton Redcroft, which previously had not marketed its products in the United States, and Omnitherm, which had previously manufactured only TA controllers, to enter the competition for new TA business.

Stanton Redcroft, a British compa­ny that has just opened a new sales, service, and applications office in Sun-cook, N.H., has responded to the growing demand for less complicated TA systems by introducing its Com­puter Enhanced Thermal Analysis, or CET A, hardware-software system. The CETA system can be linked with all of Stanton Redcroft's thermal ana­lyzers for multichannel graphics and data analysis and also allows multi-module operation. Operation is simpli­fied by special-function keys, one-key method recall, and control of experi­mental parameters directly from the keyboard.

In addition to the CETA system,

Stanton Redcroft offers an interface and software for use with an IBM PC or DEC Rainbow. This system, howev­er, can be used only for data analysis; it does not provide multimodule capa­bility because it does not actually con­trol the TA modules.

Stanton Redcroft also offers two si­multaneous TA instruments that can perform multiple measurements— TG-DTG, TG-DTG-DTA, or TG-DTG-DSC—on one sample. Ac­cording to Harris Tarlin, U.S. product manager for TA products, simulta­neous measurements give more infor­mation than can be derived from indi­vidual results because of difficulties in reproducing experimental conditions.

Omnitherm, which in the past sold only TA controllers, has now expand­ed its product line to include TMA, TGA, DSC, and high-temperature DSC analysis modules controlled by an IBM-AT-compatible computer sys­tem.

Omnitherm's controllers are com­patible with modules from most of the other TA instrument manufacturers, and so its main market has been lab­oratories with older analysis modules that want to enter the computer age. "We can still interface with other manufacturers' modules," says Ken Parkin, Omnitherm's president, "but in addition, now if we go into a new lab that has nothing, we can also offer them a full system, whereas before they would have had to buy the mod­ules from someone else."

An advantage to the multimanufac-turer capability of the Omnitherm controller is that a user doesn't have to stick with one manufacturer's anal­ysis modules. "For example," says Parkin, "some people have a Du Pont TGA, but they may also have a Per-kin-Elmer TMA, and they may want to use our DSC. We can control all of them, while others can only control their own."

TA is now used not only for re­search and development, but also by the automotive, aerospace, and elec­tronic industries to characterize start­ing materials for manufacturing, as well as by the manufacturers of the materials themselves, and the number of industrial applications is likely to continue to grow at a very fast pace. According to David McMorran of Mettler, "There are some good-sized markets for thermal analysis in manu­facturing, but they're not quite there yet. They're just starting to emerge as we use more and more plastics in place of metals and as people start to realize what a valuable tool thermal analysis is."

M.D.W.

Plenum Publishing Corporation 233 Spring Street New York, N.Y. 10013 Plenum

PUBLISHING CORPORATION