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The QTA System includes an infrared spectrometer and a user interface that connects you to all the technical expertise and systems to provide highly accurate quality data on your products, raw materials, byproducts, and in-process streams.
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The QTA System can analyze most solid, semi-solid and liquid samples.
Solids include powders, granules, seeds & grains, and pellets. For inhomogeneous solids, about one cup of material is needed, and a stirrer is used. For homogeneous solids and those solids that should not be open to the atmosphere either due to stability or health hazard reasons, less than one ounce can be used. Usually, near infrared is used for solids, so the detection limit is 500 ppm.
Liquid materials can be analyzed using either near infrared or mid infrared technology. NIR is used when the liquid is multi-phase, and the concentrations of interest are high. For NIR, a 20 mL vial is used for the analysis, requiring only about 1mL of sample. MIR is used for homogeneous liquids only, but the detection limit can go as low as 50 ppm. MIR can also be used for samples that require heating: for example, fats or greases that are solid or semi-solid at room temperature, but liquid at higher temperatures. MIR requires only one drop of sample.
QTA can measure components in these samples, but QTA can often also measure physical properties and other traits, such as particle size and viscosity. Measurements may be surface measurements, as in the case of the amount of seed treatment on seeds; or can be internal to the material, as in the case of the oil content of soybeans.
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