PetroScan™

use of sample size characteristics that reduce or eliminate the needfor maintenance intensive filter sampling.3. Low Maintenance: The Analyzer System spectrometer hasexceptional up-time in excess of 99.6% annualized, includingpreventive maintenance. This being due to its ruggedness, simpledesign and few moving parts.4. Internal optical referencing and dark referencing are performedin the hardware and firmware of the spectrometer. This enhances thelong-term reliability of the system by enabling self-compensation formany of the key variables in the measurement. Internal quality controltests will identify any possible component degradation before failureof the analyzer.5. The spectrometer will be packaged in a temperature stabilized,purged NEMA 4X enclosure. Under normal operation the package willnot have to be opened.LT’s 20 channel optical multiplexer provides measuring of up to 19 channels. Onechannel is used for internal analyzer reference. A description of the analyzer isprovided in the Appendix.LT’s complete software suite consists of Spectrametrix, LightCal, Trans andAutoDiscrim. All software is fully integrated and provides full customization flexibility.4.2. Spectra AcquisitionIn the laboratory, the use of the Lab Absolute Reference Cell (Lab-ARCell) providesa robust automated procedure for sample measurement and spectra acquisition.Using simple menus, the user in the lab requires only a one-key approach. Afterintroducing a sample into the laboratory Absolute Reference Cell, the analyzer’scomputer will command the analyzer to measure a spectra, preprocess it, store itin the appropriate file and attach a time-stamp or other identification associatedwith the sample.The use of a bar code reader is optional, to facilitate the integration with existingLIMS systems.In the process, spectra acquisition is controlled by the Analyzer’s controller. Basedon the distributed control system’s command, a specific stream is measured. Thatrequires that the optical multiplexer moves to that channel. The NIR is acquiredand stored in the Analyzer’s controller, in order to apply a chemometric model forprediction. This is a completely automated operation with no human intervention.- 11 -