Supporting Agronomy Research in Europe with prepASH – A Customer Journey
A European government agronomic research institute, we were recently delighted to pay a return visit to this long-standing customer who plays a vital role in agronomy agriculture research.
What is Agronomy?
Agronomy definition “agronomy, branch of agriculture that deals with field crop production and soil management1.”
Our European customer undertakes vital analysis research projects within agronomy agriculture. Their priority is the development, maintenance and publication of reference methods for soil, fertilizer and pollutant analysis providing technical support and advice for project leaders, researchers, authorities and laboratories within the agronomy field.
Agronomy Research Using The prepASH
With a focus on the environment, prepASH plays a key role in the analysis of crops from fields and greenhouse experiments for the purpose of food production, feeding materials, forage, grass, silage and more.
Within the agronomic practices undertaken by our customer, crop samples are harvested with yield determination and a sample part is dried for further analyses with simultaneous TS determination. The air-dried crop analysis samples are stored temporarily and subsequently ground to be brought to the sample storage of the environmental analysis. From there, they are successively taken to laboratories for processing.
The ash analysis of food samples are often required as a reference to calculate other parameters of food processing and ashing also forms part of sample preparation for the analysis of mineral content within food.
Precisa’s prepASH enables agronomy research as it intelligently combines the functions of a drying oven, muffle oven, analytical balance and evaluation unit into one convenient system. It works completely automously once it is loaded and started.
Having used 2 of our prepASH129 models on a frequent basis for nearly 20 years, the time was right to upgrade one of the systems to the new prepASH 229. This would help avoid expected maintenance costs in the future but would also improve performance procedures.
Front of image new, prepASH229 and behind, the prepASH129 which has been running since 2004.
The new prepASH benefits include:
- 12 to 29 samples in one run. High efficiency through the simultaneous analysis of moisture, ash and volaties of up to 29 samples in one run.
- Analysis operating at temperature range of 500C to 10000
- Quartz glass protected heating element providing excellent thermal shock resistance
- A temperature profile that is freely definable with ramping and holding temperatures enabling moisture, volatile and ashing with one single weighing.
Our customer was also delighted with their new prepSTATION which includes:
- 1 x prepSTATION unit,
- EP 120A analytical balance
- Data data cable for the connection between prepSTATION and the balance.
With its advanced cooling system, Precisa’s prepSTATION helped improve our customer’s workflow and enable high throughput testing.
prepASH for Agronomy Research
The prepASH combines high performance, ease of operation, precision and integrity of measurement to maximise time and accuracy in TGA analysis, as well as traceability in all measurements
Why not take a moment to read our article Analytical Results of Moisture and Ash Determination with prepASH® in Conjunction with Participating Laboratories which gives an overview of some of our work with other authorities.
If you are working within agriculture agronomy research and would like to find out more about how our prepASH can help you with your analysis, why not contact our Sales Team today. We’d be delighted to help.
Further Reading
If you have enjoyed learning how our prepASH was used within agronomic research, you may also enjoy further reading in our Application Note: Ash and Moisture Determination using prepASH for Food Analysis (link to article: Application Note: Ash and Moisture Determination using prepASH 340 Series for Food Analysis)