ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
EDITORIAL
November 1958, Vol. 30, No. 11 APPLIED JOURNALS, ACS Director of Publications, C. B. Larrabee Editorial
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ANALYTICAL
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Automation in the Control Laboratory WΕ
HAD a good opportunity to see some of t h e newest instrumentation a t t h e recent N a t i o n a l Chemical Exposition in Chicago and the I n s t r u m e n t Society of America in Philadelphia. Needless t o say, we were much impressed a t the substantial progress being made in instrumentation and t h e wide variety of new applications. After seeing these items, we must confess t h a t we do not envy t h e administrators of analytical control laboratories who must decide how far to go in a u t o m a t i n g their laboratories. Desirable as m a n y items of new instrumentation m a y be, there is the big factor of cost. T h e value of automation for use in process monitoring a n d control can be established more readily than in the laboratory. Where process control is involved, fairly expensive equipment can be justified. Such justification for t h e control laboratory m a y not be so obvious or m a y not exist. I t is true t h a t the costs of training and supporting technicians are high. I t is likewise true t h a t some of t h e newer instrumentation which can do a whole operation automatically is very expensive. One com pletely a u t o m a t i c titration system, for example, costs between $15.000 and $30,000, depending on t h e particular model. Once operating, such a n instrument can r u n an endless series of titrations rapidly and accurately with little or no supervision b y a technician. T h e cost of t h e instrument a n d the time to set it up, how ever, would seem to rule out its use for a variety of operations which are nonrepetitivc in nature. I n s t r u m e n t a t i o n which is versatile enough to be used in varied control activities, and which is not too expensive, is being adopted in more and more laboratories. I n these cases, t h e instrument makes possible greater production and more accurate results t h a n can be obtained by the technicians. I t also frees the technician for less routine analyses. T h e existence, however, of more and more instruments requires t h e services of persons skilled in their use, maintenance, and repair. The question of automation is just one t h a t affects the efficiency of the operation of the control laboratories. There has to be a reason able balance between speed a n d accuracy and cost. Some of these factors are discussed in this month's Report for Analytical Chemists. W e do not pretend t o have the answer to these problems. W e feel, however, t h a t new instrumentation will be adopted where it meets a need and its cost is commensurate with t h e degree of its utilization. T h e future of t h e technician, we feel, is not in jeopardy. T h e nature of his duties m a y change, b u t his skills and abilities will not be pre empted b y instruments.
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VOL. 30, NO. 11, NOVEMBER 1958 ·
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