‘Journal of Automatic Chemistry’-the first 10 years

It only seems like yesterday a tmiliar saying no doubt, but it is hard to realize that the Journal is now entering into its 10th year ofoperation. During the period we have had a very good and steady supply of papers and we have had very little problem in meeting our publication schedule. At present we have papers available well into our 10th year andwith those promised, we should not have any problems in expanding the frequency of publication. Generally speaking, we have been able to present a balanced view of the clinical and industrial scenes, although we have not had many papers submitted relating to process control. During the last. 10 years there have been significant changes in the instrumentation for laboratory automation. When we launched the Journal microprocessor technology was receiving much attention and on this aspect i wrote at the time: 'Within the UK, a major interest is centred on microprocessors: this, I feel, distorts the balance of effort in the field of automation. Microprocessors are just tools that the system's designer can use effectively and efficiently if they are required. Microprocessors are certainly no substitute for a proper specification of the analytical problem and the chemistry involved in that automation'. Today, microprocessors are more integrated into instrumentation and not simply additions to the instrument. But the same lessons have to be learnt each time a new concept is introduced. In the area of robotics for example, almost every application simply mimics the manual procedure, rather than addressing the problem from the initial specification stage: Such is the situation that robotic systems are being used where a fraction collector or autosampler would serve the bill, or for procedures like dissolution rate analysis, robotic systems are often preferred to less expensive and equally effective valve switching systems. Jointly, with Glaxo Operations at Barnard Castle, my own company, P S Analytical, has designed and patented a sophisticated building-block for laboratory automation (PSA 40.700 Valve Switching Data Transfer Interface, VCDTI). This selects various valve positions and samples liquid from them into a random sequence. However, this approach is less fashionable than a robotic unit, but is probably the more economic solution. In general, such valve systems have not been as well received as robotics. Figure (a) shows a schematic representation of the valve switching system designed for dissolution rate analysis. Computing power has greatly increased and the emergence of inexpensive …