Standardised Lab Equipment

Improving Quality Control for Chemical

Production with the Hach Lab Family

Problem Solution Benefits

A German chemical producer The chemical producer chose The customer determined that,
recently expanded their product Hach® and their entire platform after standardising on the Hach
line. Their central lab was of lab products, including Lab Family, error prevention,
restructured to cover applications instruments, reagents, and cost reduction, and failsafe
related to environmental and service, for quality control, redundancy for operators has
product control. They sought environmental monitoring and improved. Furthermore, the
to standardise on a set of lab boiler/cooling applications. customer has saved money by
equipment that was accurate, Products include portable and utilising a Hach service package.
safe, reliable, and easy-to-use. laboratory instruments for
photometry, turbidity, titration,
e-chem, and colour scale
instruments.

Situation
One of Europe’s top-ten producers of ammonia and urea
specializes in agrochemical and industrial chemical products.
In the field of industrial chemicals, they are a reliable supplier
of ammonia, urea, and nitric acid.
This chemical producer has two central labs: R&D and
analytical routine, which covers the entire water cycle and
production quality control. The analytical routine lab uses
a wide range of analytical methods for analysis of chemical
products and effluent control.

Water Cycle Monitoring

• Raw water from Elbe river: nitrite, nitrate, ammonium,
ortho-phosphate, total phosphorus, COD, hardness,
chloride, pH, conductivity, turbidity, colour scale Recently, the chemical producer has expanded their product
line and restructured their central lab. Satellite production
• Process water: iron, aluminium
labs merged together. They have been certified by DAkkS
• Boiler water: silicate (Deutsche Akkreditierungsstelle, the national German
• Cooling water: chlorine, chlorine dioxide accreditation body) for three years by applying high quality
and competency standards for operators and shift workers.
• Wastewater: nitrate, ammonium, total phosphorus,
This certification attests that all operators – including shift
COD, total nitrogen
workers – are capable of using the instrumentation and
methods correctly. Maintaining these quality standards
Quality Control requires a clear strategy.
• Spectrophotometry in urea production:
Biuret, Formaldehyde, Urea, Ammonia
• Colour & Turbidity in Melamin Resins (up to 80 °C):
• Colour Hazen number <10
• Turbidity <3 NTU
Standardised Lab Equipment

Customer Needs The Hach Lab Family

At this chemical plant accuracy, safety, and routine are the
keys to success after a significant expansion of products The DR6000 UV-VIS
and facilities. With multiple facilities, they understand the Spectrophotometer
importance of consistency and repeatability across labs (successor of DR5000)
and employees. For this reason, they took the opportunity delivers top performance
to standardise on a set of lab equipment. for both routine laboratory
The lab manager strives to provide his team with the best tasks and demanding
package that’s safe and easy-to-use, day or night. As such, spectrophotometric appli-
their central labs required a wide range of analytical technol- cations. It is easy to program for customised methods in
ogies, field instruments, automatic samplers and laboratory quality control and run spectrums over a wider wavelength
instruments. Analytical methods required by their central range.
lab include spectrophotometry, colour scale, turbidity, titration,
pH, and conductivity.
The DR1900 Spectrophotometer
provides light and most compact
Strategic Partnership portable spectrophotometry, built
With so much variety, the lab manager needed to identify with field use in mind.
a long-term, strategic partnership with an analytics provider
that would help them meet the demands of their scaling
business.
This chemical producer adopted the Hach Lab Family for
three reasons: SL1000 is a portable meter that can
• Hach is an expert for “Optical Technologies” and covers handle up to six parameters simulta-
several key applications in the environmental sector but neously, making testing faster. An
also in the quality control lab. Color, turbidity and UV-VIS excellent solution for boiler water
spectrometry are crucial for their daily business. applications. The SL1000 is 75% faster
than tests that require powder pillows.
• Hach redesigned their entire lab family and applied the
There is no competitive alternative to
same user interface to make handling and measurement
the SL1000.
much easier for any operator.
• Hach provides an unparalleled service package to guarantee
short response times to avoid breakdowns.

Outcomes
Standardising on the Hach Lab Family allowed the chemical
producer to:
• Compare results between lab shifts, which is essential
for quality control.
• Validate and standardse operating procedures, which
made it easier to transfer knowledge between labs.
• Have an internal backup of equipment in cases where
instruments need servicing.
The LCK Cuvette Test System for safe COD: a package that
• Reduce stock, because instruments cross the lab family includes the DR3900 VIS Laboratory Spectrophotometer,
utilise the same accessories. HT200S Thermostat, and LCK cuvette vials*. By incorpo-
• Save money and ensure quick response times with rating an internal fan, the HT200S completes COD results
Hach Service Packages. in just 30 minutes. During digestion, the HT200S is locked,
which prevents accidental burns. In addition to safe diges-
tion, the COD solution includes safety features for handling
reagents that prevent contact with chemicals. Reagents
are predosed within the LCK cuvettes and cuvette openings
prevent spills, even when the cuvette is tilted.
*The US equivalent to LCK cuvettes is TNTplus
 Standardised Lab Equipment

Conclusion The TL23 Laboratory

Turbidimeter provides
Utilising the Hach Lab Family allowed the chemical producer
accurate, stable readings
to take advantage of Hach’s industry expertise, such as optical
using ratio optical system
technologies, spectrophotometry, colour measurement, and
with self-diagnostic alerts.
turbidity, while also preventing errors, saving money and
It continues the successful
providing failsafe redundancy for lab operators.
history of the 2100 Series
The Hach Lab Family allowed the chemical producer to keeping the same optical
standardise lab equipment, utilise a unified user interface properties.
and improve lab processes across environmental and
quality control applications.
The Lico 690 Colorimeter
(successor of Lico 500) for colour
measurements of liquids carries
out exact colorimetric evaluations
in conformity with several ISO/
ASTM standards in just one single
measurement. A wide range of disposable cuvettes can be
inserted which is the ideal solution for toxic and malodorous
reagents.

Portable and laboratory HQD Meters determine pH,

conductivity, dissolved oxygen and ORP. They are
connected to smart interchangeable Intellical probes
for quick, simple, and reliable measurements.

The Ganimede P Automatic

Laboratory Analyser for serial
laboratory analysis of ortho
and total phosphate features
a compact analysis unit with
integrated digestion. DOC042.52.20267.Mar18

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