Author
bmcbride

Published
18th March 2019

You might think your gas generator has been approved by your instrument manufacturer when it is in fact merely ‘designed for’ your particular GC or LC-MS instrument. Read on to discover the significant difference.

Has your gas generator really been approved by your instrument manufacturer?

When a scientific instrument manufacturer launches a new GC or LC-MS instrument, gas generator companies will make sure they have a gas generator to sell that can supply the zero air, hydrogen or nitrogen gas that is required for that new product.

Like Peak Scientific, other gas generator companies will often design a new gas generator to provide LC-MS or GC gas suitable to meet the unique gas requirements of the new GC or LC-MS instrument. The resulting gas generator is a product which has been ‘designed for’ the new instrument, in that, as far as the gas generator manufacturer is concerned, it meets the specification of the instrument.

For most gas generator companies, this is enough. They have decided that their product will capably meet the gas requirements of the new instrument for the instrument’s lifetime.

 

Need LC-MS gas?     

 

Wherever possible Peak Scientific will work with the major GC and LC-MS instrument manufacturers such as Agilent, Thermo Fisher, SCIEX, Waters, Bruker and others, when developing new gas generator products. This is to ensure that your Peak Scientific gas generator is not only designed for your particular instrument, it also comes with the peace of mind that the major instrument manufacturers have already tested it themselves and validated it for use with their instrument. Many Peak Scientific LC-MS and GC gas generators are produced solely to support a particular instrument.

What is instrument manufacturer validation?

In order for a gas generator to be ‘validated’, the gas generator manufacturer must work with an instrument manufacturer to ensure they are satisfied the gas generator is suitable for use with a particular instrument in their product portfolio. At Peak Scientific we achieve this validation by supplying our new gas generator, in many cases a prototype, which we have designed for a particular analytical instrument, to the instrument manufacturer for testing. The testing process can take time as the instrument manufacturer will make sure that the gas generator being tested can always capably meet the GC or LC-MS gas needs of the analysis instrument to the instrument manufacturers’ stringent operating standards. The instrument manufacturer will also test to make sure that the hydrogen, nitrogen or zero air gas generator they are testing will not interfere in any way with the analysis results produced by the instrument. Once they are satisfied that the gas generator submitted for testing is suitable for use with their instrument they will validate it, meaning that the gas generator manufacturer is able to tell their customers that the generator is ‘approved’ for a particular analytical instrument.

Of course, during the validation process it’s possible that an instrument manufacturer will suggest improvements which should be made in order for a generator to be validated. At Peak Scientific we have a dedicated team of product managers and specialized laboratory gas generator engineers who work closely with the major instrument manufacturers to ensure that we are always giving you an exceptional product. We do this because we take great pride in our work and want to make sure that our products are the best they can be, but also so we can give you, our customers, the confidence of knowing that your gas generator has been approved for your particular LC-MS or GC instrument by the instrument’s manufacturer.

 

Need GC gas?     

 

Although at Peak Scientific we have a wide range of validated gas generators, not all of our generators have been validated. This can be for a variety of reasons, such as the generator being suitable to supply gas to different analytical instruments, or because the instrument is still going through the validation process. However, if you are ever in any doubt as to which Peak gas generator would be suitable for your instrument, please contact us and one of our expert Peak sales representatives will discuss your requirements and recommend a Peak gas generator that you can rely on to give you exceptional, every day.

Alternatively, you can use our handy search tool to pair your instrument with the ideal Peak Scientific nitrogen, hydrogen or zero air gas generator.

Hopefully you now understand the difference between a gas generator which has simply been ‘designed for’ an instrument and one which is ‘approved’ for that instrument by the instrument manufacturer. When a gas generator is approved you can have full confidence that it will meet the gas requirements of your instrument without interfering with your analysis.

You may also be interested in:

Giving you exceptional quality, every day

What should you know before you buy nitrogen gas?

Has Mass Spectrometry unlocked a cure for Ebola?

Subscribe to our newsletter for regular product updates, news and insights.