Clarus® 590/690 GC Systems

Significance of the topic

Gas chromatography remains critical for analysis in food safety, environmental testing, petrochemical and pharmaceutical laboratories. The ability to detect trace contaminants, characterize complex mixtures, and meet evolving regulatory standards requires instruments with enhanced sensitivity, throughput, and operational flexibility.

Objectives and study overview

This document presents the PerkinElmer Clarus 590 and 690 gas chromatography systems, detailing their design innovations, performance characteristics, and applications across multiple industries. The goal is to provide an understanding of how these platforms address current analytical challenges.

Methodology and instrumentation

• Capillary injection port optimized for sample transfer, reduced carryover and simplified maintenance through standard liners and a gold-seal interface.
• Wide-range flame ionization detector offering a linear response over 10⁷ to accurately quantify hydrocarbons from trace to major levels without reruns.
• TurboMatrix autosampler configurations including headspace (HS) sampling for volatiles, thermal desorption (ATD) for air toxics, and MultiPrep for liquid injection, HS and SPME, with capabilities for mixing, dilution, derivatization and barcode tracking.
• 108-vial integrated autosampler providing combined access to two injector ports and automated syringe pre-rinse for reduced cycle times.
• Swafer microchannel flow technology enabling programmable carrier gas control, column switching, backflush and heart-cut operations for robust method development.
• Clarus 690 high-performance oven featuring rapid heating and cooling to maximize sample throughput and reduce injection-to-injection times.
• TotalChrom chromatography data system for seamless instrument control, data acquisition, processing, reporting and secure multiuser management.
• Arnel turnkey solutions tailored for petrochemical applications such as detailed hydrocarbon analysis, simulated distillation and natural gas testing.

Main results and discussion

The Clarus 590 and 690 systems demonstrate enhanced sensitivity, precision and operational efficiency. The improved injector design delivers better linearity and minimized analyte reactivity. The wide-range FID expands dynamic range, eliminating reruns. TurboMatrix autosamplers enhance throughput with versatile sampling modes. Automated flow control and Swafer modules simplify method setup, ensuring reproducible retention times. The advanced oven in the Clarus 690 further accelerates analyses, supporting high daily sample volumes.

Benefits and practical applications

• Adaptable to food flavor profiling and contaminant detection, environmental air, water and soil monitoring, petrochemical quality control and pharmaceutical residual solvent analysis.
• User-centric touchscreen interface with real-time chromatogram display, integrated flow calculator and multilingual support for intuitive operation.
• Reduced maintenance and consistent performance through standardized consumables, automated septa-change alerts and robust system design.
• Streamlined workflows facilitated by TotalChrom software and comprehensive OneSource laboratory services for installation, training and support.

Future trends and possibilities

• Integration of real-time data analytics and AI-driven optimization for predictive maintenance and enhanced decision support.
• Expansion of automated, high-throughput sample preparation workflows with robotics and remote operation.
• Development of sustainable chromatography practices minimizing solvent use and environmental impact.
• Advancements in field-deployable GC/MS systems for on-site environmental and safety monitoring.

Conclusion

The Clarus 590 and 690 GC platforms provide a versatile, high-performance solution for critical analytical applications. By combining advanced injection and detection technologies with flexible autosampling and powerful data management, these systems address diverse laboratory requirements, driving efficiency and data quality while supporting future analytical challenges.

Reference

No references were provided in the original document.