What’s New at Tornado?

The start of the 2022 new year at Tornado has brought a fresh outlook for the company! With a range of exciting new products in the pipeline, the forging of new partnerships with big systems integrators, and progressive advances in our software and industrial communications, we look forward to serving our clients with a bevy of the best-in-class, next-gen Raman spectrometers, accessories, and service offerings. Our Events page has been updated with a list of tradeshows that we plan on attending or providing support to our local distributors – this is your best chance to see a demo or discuss in person how we can meet the demands of your latest project.

Here we grow again!

Perhaps the biggest sign of growth is that we have expanded our staff in Marketing, Inside Sales, and Software Development in the last quarter. Additionally, we are currently hiring for a Field Service Engineer and an Optomechanical Assembly Technician – see our Careers page for more information and to apply. This investment in human capital is expected to grow our market share in the spectrometer industry, provide better service and support, and increase customer satisfaction. This is in line with our Vision Statement to provide our customers a distinct competitive advantage by delivering superior performance and innovative technological process monitoring solutions.

HTVS™-enabled spectrometers

Our newest flagship Raman spectrometer – the Process Guardian™ Raman Spectrometer, is a process-ready, process-capable spectrometer platform. This rack mountable, HTVS™-enabled spectrometer has an embedded processor, which has already generated a lot of interest since its introduction last quarter. At the core of our business is our other HTVS™-enabled spectrometer, the HyperFlux™ Pro Plus. This Raman analyzer is fully compatible with Sartorius AMBR® systems, which has kept our Sales Specialists and Raman Innovation Scientists busy.

OPC UA Industrial Communications

Our OPC UA industrial communications allow more robust, more powerful connections to external devices. This data exchange standard enhances the command-and-control software, enabling users to capture, store, process, and report on real-time Raman measurements. Having OPC UA and Modbus connectivity allows our Raman spectrometers to seamlessly communicate with process control and DCS systems as well as other complementary devices and enterprise software systems. Tornado has been cultivating partnerships with big systems integrators, with the result that more customers and partners are interested in using our industrial communications options.

Prediction Engines

Tornado’s Raman spectrometers feature fully integrated prediction modules for easy identification of your bioprocessing samples. The prediction engine module is an add-on module for SpectralSoft, which provides real-time predictions using the collected spectra. SIMCA or PEAXACT models are imported into SpectralSoft and interpret real-time spectra from the HFPP into measurement values of interest. This, in turn, provides actionable information for process control or process understanding. The prediction engine’s advantage is that it obviates the need for multiple active programs to produce real-time predictions. SpectralSoft sets the instrument parameters, collects the data, processes the data, and provides measurements of interest from user models. The PEAXACT Prediction Engine also features a Spectral Hard Modeling routine not common to many other MVAs. Standard multivariate methods plus the hard modeling options allow users to fully extract critical process knowledge from the underlying spectral data. These advantages allow the expansion of the options available for customers to access unparalleled measurement results to build models and run online predictions for process monitoring and control and laboratory applications.

Customized immersion probes

Your specialized processes may present unique challenges to equipment procurement, and Tornado can meet your requirements by customizing the Hudson Immersion Bioprobes to suit your application. Our immersion probes will be at home in any bioprocessing environment. This includes harsh environments and aggressive chemistries, such as high temperatures, high pressures, or highly corrosive liquids. Probe dimensions can also be customized to accommodate large reactor vessels etc. Our sales team would be glad to assist with a custom manufactured probe for your specific bioprocess application. In the near future, we will be augmenting our standard catalog items with a line of common sizes and configurations to expand our family of off-the-shelf rugged probe options to expand applicability beyond the bio area. Tornado is also actively working on a product launch of our ruggedized Raman immersion probe and sample chamber for off-line analyses, more to announce later.

Applications

Additionally, we have been looking at exploring various applications in Raman spectroscopy, about which we will go into more detail in upcoming white papers and application notes:

• Downstream processing is an application where we have shown the power of Tornado’s throughput and sensitivity by being able to selectively detect proteins eluting off the column in a timely fashion
• Upstream processing has been enhanced where Tornado’s throughput and sensitivity allow for measurements of CQAs more quickly and accurately
• Feed Frame applications where Raman can contribute significantly to blending and mixing confirmation, since Raman is particularly well-suited to the detection and quantification of low-level APIs
• Analysis of CBD where the power of Raman can be put to work in the analysis of CBD and cannabinoid extraction and crystallization
• Gas Phase analysis where Raman can be used to do multicomponent analysis with one measurement, often down to the ppm level
• Crystallization where we can contribute to the molecular understanding of polymorph conversion and crystallization analysis in general… we have cultivated several key partnerships in this space

Conclusion

Without a doubt, Raman spectroscopy continues to be a cutting-edge analytical technique that will undoubtedly continue to be applied in even more industries and markets in the future. Tornado continues to innovate in this space with ruggedized custom probes, advanced operating software that utilizes progressive prediction engines, and use of industry standard OPC-UA industrial communication protocols. These advancements ensure that Tornado Spectral System’s product line continues to serve your process requirements now and in the future, by providing Raman measurements you can trust.

If you would like to discuss your application and are considering adopting Raman spectroscopy as a process analytic technology, please contact us at [email protected].