Automating liner exchange

Matrix material from samples can contaminate a GC-liner, leading to peak broadening and loss of compounds through adsorption in the liner within a few GC runs.

Under these conditions, the analyst is forced to perform frequent liner replacement, an operation which normally requires manual intervention. Running large series of samples will represent a serious challenge. The Automated Liner EXchange (Alex) replaces liners in the Gerstel cooled injection system CIS 4.

The Alex system enables fully automated GC analysis of samples with a high matrix load as well as 'dirty' extracts, which can be directly injected into the CIS 4 using the Gerstel multi-purpose sampler MPS 2.

Specially designed trays can hold up to 14 or up to 98 CIS 4 liners in individually sealed, contamination-free storage compartments. Alex enables automated CIS 4 liner exchange at pre-determined regular intervals in a sequence.

Master Software provides integrated control of the MPS 2 and CIS 4.

In combination with the Agilent ChemStation, a single method and sequence list control the entire system including GC and MSD.