Shimadzu launch first internet controlled HPLC access

Shimadzu make available the World's first network-enabled controller that allows web browser access of High Performance Liquid Chromatograph (HPLC) allowing laboratory researchers to control and monitor their Prominence and VP series HPLC systems.

The remote access means that researchers and scientists can check the status of all networked HPLC systems from anywhere in the world. This remote access can also allow the creation of a centralised administration across the network.

Equipped with a LAN adapter and Web-control capability, both the CBM-20A and CBM-20A Lite allow researchers to use their networks to control and monitor their Prominence and VP series HPLC systems.

The CBM series of HPLC controllers can act as an interface for connecting LC workstations, network-client computers, and analytical instruments via Ethernet. An XML-based interface allows users to set-up, control, monitor and maintain their HPLC remotely.

Researchers can operate the controller from any computer with Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher - without the need for any additional software.

The centralised management ensures efficiency, offers added security with multi-level user access options, provides a flexible analytical environment, and helps to conserve valuable bench space.

According to Curtis Campbell, Shimadzu Scientific Instruments' HPLC product manager, researchers need dependable, defensible results quickly.

"The use of a system controller with a Web interface can greatly increase researcher productivity by providing a quick, convenient method for tracking system maintenance and determining system performance," he said.

HPLC is perceived as the more versatile tool and companies want to be able to carry out as much work as possible with each instrument they buy. The introduction of remote access to this analytical laboratory process can only make its uptake even more cost-effective.

On a lab scale drug companies have tended to use HPLC, moving up to multicolumn technologies such as simulated moving bed chromatography for industrial-scale applications.