Titrations Now Faster, Safer and Easier

Intense competition and pressure to reduce costs per analysis are among the leading challenges facing today's laboratories. In this context, laboratory managers are demanding more from their personnel and analytical instruments. The new trend in the sector is simple integrated solutions with the power and flexibility needed to respond to changing analytical requirements, while remaining easy to use for everyone with just a few hours of training.

OMNIS Analysis Platform – Fully Modular Structure

"OMNIS," a word meaning "each one" or "all" in Latin, is also the name of the entirely new analytical platform offered by Metrohm. OMNIS has been developed to meet the needs of any type of laboratory and user. Initially presented with a focus on titration, this analytical system will in the near future bring together all of Metrohm's analysis techniques on a single shared platform. The OMNIS platform is characterized from the ground up by seamless modularity, with all hardware and software components designed to highlight this feature. The system's most basic component is a simple titration module. When demand increases due to reasons such as higher sample throughput or additional titration method requirements, the system can be expanded at any time with various hardware accessories including additional burettes, stirrers, measurement inputs, pumps, and automation, as well as additional measurement modes licensable online or offline, statistical functions, and many other software features. The modular concept offered by OMNIS allows the system to be expanded step by step across a range extending from a simple standalone titrator to a powerful robotic system capable of performing 4 analyses in parallel simultaneously and processing 175 samples without intervention.

OMNIS Titrator

The OMNIS titrator forms the main module of this entirely new platform designed for titration. Equipped with a measurement unit, an electrode, and a magnetic or paddle stirrer, this unit represents the most basic building block needed for your titrations. Thanks to the modular and expandable firmware structure OMNIS possesses, users can equip their titrators entirely according to their requirements. The OMNIS titrator can be easily expanded with up to four additional titration or dosing modules, additional measurement inputs, and stirrers when more titrations or measurement parameters are needed, and independent workstations can operate either in parallel or standalone. Additional measurement modes can be easily licensed based on user requirements and activated on the existing titrator at any time. OMNIS is a system that grows step by step with the user's needs.

OMNIS Liquid Adapter – Reagent Recognition and Fully Protected Reagent Changes

As a wet chemistry method, titration has sometimes meant contact with potentially hazardous liquids in the past. Thanks to the patented Liquid Adapter technology offered by OMNIS (Figure 1), this situation can now be completely eliminated. The new liquid adapter enables reagent changes without opening the bottle. The liquid adapter easily attaches to the bottle cap, which is part of the reagent bottle and contains an integrated RFID chip, and simultaneously provides precise reagent identification, offering additional safety. When the reagent bottle is connected to the titrator, the system identifies the bottle contents and checks the reagent information against the specifications of the method to be executed. The LED lights on the liquid adapter show the connection status and reagent validity, thus eliminating user errors and ensuring complete traceability. The OMNIS titrator also features a completely redesigned superior capacity burette system. With this design offering 100,000 steps per cylinder volume, a new level of dosing precision is provided.

Modular Automation for Up to 175 Samples

Automation is vital in many laboratories because it allows time and labor savings while increasing sample throughput. In this context, OMNIS presents an unprecedented level of sample processing performance in titration within a modular automation concept. The OMNIS Sample Robot, thanks to its modular structure, can be upgraded from the entry level (S) through mid-range (M) to maximum capacity (L) in line with your application requirements, providing unique flexibility with step-by-step expansion options that can reach a sample robot with 175-sample capacity. The sample processing concept presented by the new automation platform eliminates the tradition of using rotating sample changers in titration. The OMNIS Sample Robot with its x-y-z platform provided by OMNIS offers the ability to hold far more samples compared to the footprint required by the system. The x-y-z principle also makes it possible to place new trays in place of those filled with completed samples while the system continues analysis without interruption. Trays containing samples can be freely positioned on the robot and specific names can be given to each tray, allowing them to be automatically recognized by the system.

Parallel Titration for High Sample Throughput

The parallel titration features provided by the modular OMNIS titration platform enable the integration of several different titrations on the same automation system. In this context, the robotic arm can feed samples to up to 4 workstations and enables users to perform 4 different titrations fully automatically and simultaneously. These four titrations can be identical analyses or completely different work. When the system detects free capacity at any workstation, the next analysis is automatically initiated. More workstations do not mean more confusion; users can assign specific parameters to specific workstations on the sample robot when desired, ensuring the highest efficiency on the smallest footprint for their most frequently performed analyses.

Intuitive Use

However sophisticated analytical instrumentation may be, users do not favor software that is difficult to manage and takes a long time to learn. The OMNIS analytical platform is managed through intuitive software that is easy to learn. All instruments are automatically detected by the software and displayed graphically on the user interface. Thus, the system configuration needed to perform the analysis of the sample at hand can be easily created using the "drag and drop" method. The method editor is also completely graphic-based and allows command-based method editing. Since all defined workstations and methods can be copied and used repeatedly as templates, method editing can be performed in a practical and stress-free manner, saving time.

Sample and Result-Oriented Work

The main principle governing sample and result management in any software is "smart integration." "What are the concentrations of x, y, and z parameters in my sample?" OMNIS answers these questions without requiring any indirect method : The new analytical platform operates from the user's perspective. Regardless of which method is used or how many different parameters are to be analyzed for each sample, OMNIS software brings the results together and presents them directly associated with the sample in a single report.

A New Level of Performance for Titration

More than 10 years after the world's most popular titrator Titrando entered the market, Metrohm now presents OMNIS to bring titration to a new level of performance. Thanks to its modular concept and features fully aligned with user requirements, your titrations on this new platform will be much faster, much safer, and much easier. Andre Yanço General Manager / Metrohm Turkey