Applications Centre Provides more Comprehensive Support for Analytical Instrumentation

Yokogawa Europe has expanded its applications centre at its European headquarters in Amersfoort, Netherlands, to provide local applications support for process analytical instruments including gas chromatographs, FT-NIR (Fourier Transform near-infrared) analysers and TDL (tuneable diode laser) analysers.

The centre will provide support to Yokogawa customers in Europe and Africa, and complements similar Yokogawa centres in Japan, Singapore and the United States.

The addition of these new capabilities to the European Applications Centre (EAC) means that Yokogawa is now the only process analytical instrumentation manufacturer that can provide worldwide support for customers in the Asia/Pacific, North American and EMEA sectors and time zones.

"The ability to provide this level of worldwide support is vital as process analytical systems often play a critical role in the quality, efficiency and safety of production operations", says Loek van Eijck, Product Manager for Analytical Systems with Yokogawa Europe: "These analytical installations generally involve a high degree of customisation, and with the equipment and expertise we have in Amersfoort we are able to engineer systems that are tailor-made to our customers’ requirements."

A typical installation for this type of process analyser system requires high-quality support in the form of application method development, and in the case of process gas chromatographs (PGCs) a specific column system must be engineered specifically for the process streams being analysed. This requires a tailor-made hardware and software configuration.

The application centre also incorporates an infrared laboratory which allows for specific liquid and gas applications to be developed. Fume cupboards exist for the more toxic applications.

To provide reliable solutions the laboratory performs method development, assembly, fine tuning, repeatability and final performance tests. Customers are invited for factory acceptance test and for system training. Yokogawa also offers general training courses for operation and maintenance, commissioning and on-site start-up as well as on-site operation and maintenance instructions.

"Yokogawa now has 50 years’ experience in analytical instrumentation, including more than 8500 gas chromatography installations within the petrochemical, refining, base chemicals, and industrial gas and other industries", says Loek van Eijck: "This wealth of experience and expertise can now be accessed along with the latest equipment in our European Applications Centre to provide the optimum solution to our customers’ requirements."