Download 3 - Agilent Technologies

basis, such tests can validate assumptions about performance of the analytical system and help verify results.
✔
Enables control of multiple instruments.
Additional software can be used for
many other tasks. Provides for better data
storage and archival.
Local area networks
Shared printing
peripherals
Figure 78
A laboratory LAN —
connecting instruments and
collating analytical results
✘
Requires more bench space for
peripherals such as printers or plotters.
A laboratory running food analyses frequently requires
multiple instruments from multiple instrument vendors for
sample analysis. Although the integrators and PC systems
described above can evaluate data at analytical instrument
stations throughout the laboratory, this data must be collected centrally—over a network, for example—in order to
generate a single report for multiple analytical techniques.
Local area networks (LANs) offer several advantages in
addition to shared data processing (see figure 78). Centralized printing saves bench space and reduces equipment
expenses, and centralized file security through a single
computer—the server—accelerates data backup. Standard
network software and hardware cannot handle data files
from diverse analytical instrument vendors. The analytical
software therefore should have file conversion utilities
based on the Analytical Instrument Association ANDI file
format (*.cdf).
✔
Integrates multiple techniques and
instruments from multiple vendors. Saves
bench space and computer processing
resources. Access to network utilities
such as e-mail.
✘
Data processing features may not match
those of dedicated data analysis software
applications.
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