Canadian Analytical Solutions
Sample Introduction and Automation for Canadian Laboratories
Your analysis starts long before the sample reaches the instrument. We design, validate, and support automated sample introduction and conditioning systems that maintain integrity from source to injector while optimizing your throughput, so your data holds up and your team stays focused on results.
What we're hearing from Canadian laboratories
What we see in the field, the most common sample introduction challenges
Most sample introduction conversations start in one of three places. See which one sounds like yours.
You already know the problem is the sample
You’re processing bulk matrices for trace analytes, trying to push high pressure air samples into parts-per-trillion territory, analyzing hot and humid samples, monitoring multiple locations at your facility far removed from the laboratory, or running pyrolysis for plastics.
You know the instrument is not the bottleneck. The sample, and getting it to the instrument, is. You just need a team willing to engage with it.
You haven’t realized (yet) that the problem is the sample
Peaks go missing or are shifting. Blanks show carryover. Repeatability is not where you need it.
The instrument looks fine and your standards are spot-on, but the real issue is upstream, cold spots and drop-outs, moisture, reactive analytes adsorbing onto surfaces, or a manual syringe that was never properly purged.
You’ve got that nagging feeling that things could run better.
You’re running ten samples a day and you’d really like to run sixty-four or two hundred, and unattended. Connecting samples to the instrument takes forever. Calibrations and QC runs interrupt the queue.
You’re running your samples between different instruments. Your gut tells you there’s got to be a better way, that you need to automate and consolidate but you haven’t found anyone to make it happen.
Solving measurement problems from sample to result
Five ways we help Canadian laboratories measure with confidence.
Natural gas, refinery gas, specialty gases, trace sulfur, petrochemical, environmental, and beyond. We design the analytical system around your actual matrix and validate it before deployment.
Five questions we start with
- Where is the sample, and how far from the instrument?
- How many samples per period of time?
- What’s in it? Analytes, matrix, concentrations, temperature, pressure, moisture, reactives, toxics?
- Does the sample need to return to the vessel, or can it vent?
- How open is your workflow to improvements?
The answers decide the configuration. Everything else flows from there.
Sampling projects we’re especially proud of
Automation
Automated multi-stream gas sampling
Most laboratories handling pressurized gases still connect one cylinder at a time. We design multi-stream systems using high-pressure solenoid and stream selection valves that route up to sixty-four streams to a single instrument unattended.
Calibration standards and QC checks run automatically inside the sequence. Sampling infrastructure can be as complex as the instrument itself, so we scope it independently and only build what the workflow actually needs.
You can start with an instrument today and add gas automation as a Step 2 when the laboratory is ready, it doesn’t have to be all at once.
Scion 8500 GC · Scion 8300 GC · Bruker & Varian retrofits
2 to 1,250 psi
Solenoid valve range, up to 105°C
Up to 64 streams
Valco SSV routing, Compass CDS controlled
24/7 unattended
Walk-away operation overnight
Mixed pressure
High and low streams on one system
SAMPLE PREPARATION
Headspace, preconcentration, and sample conditioning
When the matrix is the limiting factor, the front end matters more than the instrument. Dissolved gases in water, bitumen solid at room temperature, residual solvents in pharma, TO-15 air canisters, breathing air under CSA Z180.1, greenhouse gas work using vacutainers, reactive compounds like ammonia that adsorb onto surfaces, each system has a configuration that maintains sample integrity.
We heat lines to eliminate cold spots, specify fully inert paths for reactive analytes, and integrate headspace, preconcentration, pyrolysis, thermal desorption, or heated liquid autosampling depending on what your samples require.
For even more challenging applications like transformer DGA, VFAs, or ammonia, our specialists design and implement the right solution for you. It’s how we keep the data reliable.
Scion HT3 · Scion Versa · SPT · Hero Vacutainers Preparation · Vacutainers autosampler · Pressure system for calibration standards · 8400 Pro · Frontier Pyrolysis · Thermal Desorption
Vacutainers preparation and processing
Headspace
Pressure station
Heated liquid autosampler
Pyrolysis
Thermal Desorption
What this looked like
Heavy hydrocarbons contamination in feedstocks
A Canadian butane processing facility discovered heavy hydrocarbon contamination in their pressure vessels during maintenance. Standard GC methods could not detect it, the compounds would not volatilize under normal injection conditions, so the contamination stayed invisible to every method on the shelf.
We developed a new high-pressure cold-on-column injection approach that keeps all compounds in the same phase and depressurizes directly on the column. The customer funded the R&D, purchased two production systems, and has since commissioned multiple follow-on projects, turning a dead-end diagnostic into a repeatable workflow.
First-ever visibility
into heavy hydrocarbon contamination
2
production systems deployed
Multiple
Follow-on projects since
Platforms we work with
Current systems, legacy instruments, and everything in between.
Scion 8500 GC
Primary multi-channel automation platform. Up to three injectors, three detectors, large valve oven, high-pressure solenoid capability, integrated sampling pump, and high-temperature analysis for heavy fractions.
Scion 8300 GC
Smaller footprint single channel system for dedicated applications. Pairs with liquid, HT3 and Versa headspace autosamplers for dissolved gas, residual solvent, and environmental work.
Bruker and Varian Legacy 450, 436 and 456
Parts, service, and automation retrofits for Bruker and Varian system. Upgrade what works instead of replacing what does not need replacing.
Frontier Pyrolysis
Converts solid samples into volatile components for GC and GCMS analysis. Materials research, packaging, catalyst research and microplastics.
Integrated Thermal Desorption
Integrated sorbent or cryo traps for the in-line concentration of trace analytes. Integrated with Scion GC and GCMS.
Plus
High throughput vacutainers autosampler, up to 200 samples
Hero system for preparation of Vacutainer tubes
Pressure system for gas standards
Not sure which platform fits your setup?
Let's start with your workflow.
Tell us what you are measuring, where the sample is, and what is not working. We will map the path from source to result and show you where improvements will have the most impact.