In the food industry, fats and oils are important raw materials for the production of a wide variety of products. A key quality parameter of any fat or oil is the Solid Fat Content (SFC) value. Nowadays the SFC value is measured using advanced NMR techniques.

The procedure to determine SFC has been documented in the standard ISO 8292:1991 (AOCS Cd 16b-93 for the US), which describes the precisely controlled sample conditioning and measuring procedures. In cooperation with industry, Da Vinci Europe Laboratory Solutions B.V. (DVE) has developed a robot system that automates all requirements.

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Introduction

Quality Control procedures are vital in the production of fused silica GC columns. With a growing consumables market, production increases have a major impact on the QC operation. To make this QC process more efficient, Da Vinci Europe Laboratory Solution provides an automation solution to capillary column QC testing using robotics.

Production

GC columns are manufactured from extreme pure glass (fused silica). Base material is a very narrow 50-530µ capillary tube extracted at 2200°C from a 1.5 m hollow glass rod. The fragile glass capillary receives a 6 layer protective exterior polyimide coating which allows it to bend. Finally internal coating, cutting to specific lengths and coiling makes it a capillary GC column ready for its final QC check.

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