Waters Corporation has introduced TRIOS AutoPilot software from its TA Instruments Division for its thermal analyser product line. The software helps laboratory staff using TA’s thermal analysers create routine and streamlined standard operating procedures (SOPs) up to 25% faster, and avoid transcription errors that can inhibit productivity and can lead to inconsistent thermal analysis measurements that are used to assess materials performance as well as batch-to-batch product quality.

“Next to reliable and sensitive analytical instrumentation, modern, easy-to-use instrument software is key to unlocking scientific creativity and productivity,” said Jianqing Bennett, Senior Vice President, TA Instruments Division of Waters Corporation. “Whether they’re making measurements in a research lab or production environment, TRIOS AutoPilot software gives customers a new level of simplicity for getting uniform thermal analysis data faster and reduces costs associated with training and retraining operators to run samples properly.” As a premium feature now available for TA Instruments’ thermal analysers and rheo meters, the TRIOS AutoPilot software OneTouch interface guides operators with video and text prompts that simplifies the process of getting test results. The software comes with a comprehensive set of pre-written express scripts for automating many common procedures such as sample loading, instrument calibration and verification, and formatting and exporting data files into laboratory information management systems (LIMS). TRIOS AutoPilot is the first thermal analysis software to be based on Google’s visual programming interface, Blockly, which is opensource software that gives operators an intuitive way to create custom scripts and configure them for thermal analysis applications without the need to learn a higher-level programming language. This allows laboratories to capture written SOPs, along with the institutional knowledge of more experienced operators, and codify them into scripts that can be shared throughout the enterprise. To ensure compliance with regulatory requirements such as 21CFRPart11, TRIOS AutoPilot software features built-in audit trails and data integrity options with electronic signatures.