Cold Link Africa November/December 2017 | Page 51

PRODUCTS INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN Cost-effective humidity validator Because the control of humidity is vital for many processes in pharmaceutical manufacturing, there are a large number of probes in use at any given time — all of which will need to be regularly calibrated to ensure accuracy. Sending relative humidity (RH) probes away for calibration is a time-consuming exercise for both food and pharmaceutical companies, but is often seen as necessary since the creation, modification, archival, retrieval, and transmission of electronic records are essential business practices. While many companies opt to set up their own, in-house humidity calibration laboratories, this is not an option for all manufacturers because of the capital outlay and resources needed to manage it. However, there are affordable alternatives. Michell Instruments, locally represented by Instrotech, offers a cost-effective humidity validator that enables food and pharmaceutical companies the option to save time and money on recalibrations, paying back the cost of the instrument in a few months. The HygroCal100 is unique in its class. As well as being completely portable, it has data logging and documenting capabilities. For more information, contact +27 (0) 10 595 1831. Genie in a bottle Afrox has unveiled its Genie Helium N6.0 product. With a guaranteed minimum purity of 99.9999%, this speciality gas is a certified Helium N6.0 product, and offers smart technology and portability in a revolutionary new packaging. Helium N6.0 is the preferred carrier gas for hypersensitive detection techniques such as gas chromatography– mass spectrometry (GC MS) and GC with pulsed discharge helium ionisation detectors (PDHID). In these applications, high gas purity is of absolute importance as impurities show up in the baseline as noise and can potentially mask important components. Helium N6.0 can be used to determine ultra-low parts per billion measurements, which was previously never achievable with other less pure helium. Other applications where Helium N6.0 can be utilised include medica