New AquaLab Vapor Sorption Analyzer Puts Isotherm Technology Within Financial Reach of Food and Pharmaceutical Scientists

PULLMAN, Wash., Jan. 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- The AquaLab Vapor Sorption Analyzer (VSA), www.aqualab.com,by Decagon Devices allows scientists to better understand moisture in products and pinpoint quality control issues.  The way a product is influenced by temperature and humidity changes can reveal important details about physical and chemical changes that end shelf-life.  This type of measurement is called an isotherm. 

Isotherm generation technology tracks changes in the amount of moisture in a product as the water activity changes.  Isotherms hold the key to understanding hidden details of food and pharmaceutical products.  The AquaLab VSA is the only moisture sorption analyzer to combine both dynamic and traditional isotherm methods in one instrument.   

See the VSA demonstration video here.

Due to the low cost of the AquaLab VSA, more research and development and quality control departments will be able to generate isotherms for their products in their own labs.  The AquaLab VSA provides hundreds of data points, showing details that no isotherm generator has shown before such as glass transition.  VSA users experience greater resolution while still viewing reactions such as crystallization.  

Dr. Lisa Mauer from Purdue University Department of Food Science stated, "There is great value in having a single instrument capable of both dynamic and static methods, and the breadth of moisture sorption data that can be generated using the VSA will significantly contribute to improved understanding of water-solid interactions." 

The AquaLab Vapor Sorption Analyzer provides valuable insight into new product development, shelf-life estimation, packaging calculations, temperature abuse modeling and component mixing models in hours instead of weeks.

Decagon Devices, Inc. was founded in 1983 and is located in Pullman, Washington.  Decagon's instruments measure water in soil, food, pharmaceuticals, and other porous media.  AquaLab water activity meters are used in 80 percent of the top 100 food companies and are the fastest, most accurate instruments for measuring water activity.  To learn more about the AquaLab VSA please visit http://www.aqualab.com/products/moisture-analysis-meters-2/aqualab-vapor-sorption-analyzer/.

Contact:
John Zeugschmidt
Media Relations
[email protected]
509.332.5581

SOURCE Decagon Devices