Monitoring-MENA

Speed and accuracy Measure water activity (aw) in 5 minutes or less (average read time: 2.5 minutes) with ±0.003 aw accuracy. AQUALAB instruments are the fastest, most precise water activity meters available. Use anywhere Use the AQUALAB 4TE water activity meter to get lab-quality measurements at the line, receiving dock, processing plant, storage facility—anywhere you need to test and verify the safety and quality of your products and ingredients. Internal temperature control lets you set a measuring temperature between 15 and 50 °C and use the instrument anywhere—even outside the QC lab.

In addition to the standard dew point sensor, the Series 4TEV has a hygroscopic polymer capacitance sensor that can be used to measure the water activity of samples containing volatiles. You can switch between sensors using the instrument menu. The capacitance sensor is less accurate (± 0.015 aw) than the dew point sensor (± 0.003 aw).

All AQUALAB instruments now come with DUO functionality so you can measure water activity and get moisture content simultaneously from a single sample. To use the DUO function, you need a product-specific calibration model for each of the products you want to measure.
Best products Most products with less than 40% moisture (by weight) will work using DUO calibration models. Products with moistures above 40% usually have such uniformly high water activity values that other moisture analyzers are a better fit.

The volatility problem Measuring water activity in samples such as sauces, dressings, tobacco, spices, or teas has traditionally been difficult. The reason: they contain volatile compounds that interfere with chilled mirror and capacitance sensors.
Laser speed. Laser accuracy. Laser simplicity. As world experts in water activity, it wasn’t enough to engineer an instrument that directly measured water activity in most foods. So we created the TDL (tunable laser diode), which uses a laser sensor capable of accurately measuring even the most difficult volatiles. It’s easy to use and takes only minutes to measure any sample—even soy sauce, pure alcohol, gasoline, and tobacco. In fact, CORESTA (Cooperation Centre for Scientific Research Relative to Tobacco) specifies the TDL as the only sensor that can accurately measure water activity in tobacco products. Respected by customers and third party scientists alike, the TDL (tunable laser diode) delivers readings you can completely trust no matter what the sample contains.

The speed challenge Normally, measuring water activity takes a significant amount of time. The sample must come to equilibrium with the air in the headspace above the sample before a reading can be taken. Depending on the sample, that can take 2-5 minutes—even longer for coated products and products high in fat. There hasn’t been a way around “equilibrium time” or “dwell time.” Until now. Fast answers, no waiting The new AQUALAB 3 breaks the speed barrier. Using SKALA-powered predictive AI, it delivers both water activity and moisture content readings on a single sample in one minute.

Missing: critical moisture information Isotherms can help you determine shelf life, choose the right packaging, and diagnose and solve problems in your product. What you don’t need is the hassle of creating those isotherms. Old-school studies take months and require a room full of desiccators. Newer DVS (Dynamic Vapor Sorption) methods are faster, but they’re also expensive, and they don’t give you enough data for a complete picture. Isotherms have been a promise that doesn’t deliver—until now.
Make moisture dynamics crystal clear What if you could create an isotherm in just 48 hours? And not just a curve with a few points, but detailed absorption and desorption curves composed of hundreds of points that show exactly what happens as your product absorbs and desorbs water? The VSA does that and more. Existing DVS instruments give you snapshots in time. The VSA gives you DVS capability PLUS a new DDI mode that shows you the whole picture of how your product changes during adsorption and desorption. And its full-featured modeling software puts answers at your fingertips. Solve problems like caking and clumping, matching the excipient to the API, and choosing correct packaging.

You need more than water activity Water activity. You have to measure it. Most people grab the cheapest water activity meter they can find to get the inspector off their backs. But what if there was an affordable, entry-level water activity meter that helped you manage your costs and manage compliance?
Perfect fit plus room to grow Introducing the AQ1. It’s an entry-level water activity meter powered by SKALA, our most advanced process automation platform for food. And it’s priced to fit a start-up budget. If you’re small enough to be running a one-person lab, you qualify for the AQ1 single-user package—a setup that lets you run lean but ready to grow.

Still searching for that equation? There’s so much you can do with your water activity and isotherm data—set water activity specifications, predict shelf life, evaluate packaging. But when it comes time to actually do the calculations, you can spend hours searching in reference books and published papers for the right equations to use. It’s frustrating. All the answers in one place Imagine a software program that puts all the moisture calculations in one place. A program that lets you simply type in your data and get answers—quickly. One that lets you do the things you’ve always wanted to do with your data but found overwhelming. Introducing the MOISTURE ANALYSIS TOOLKIT.