New Agilent 6000 Series MS products expected to transform lab productivity, nearly double Agilent's market share by 2008

Scientists and laboratory technicians rely on liquid chromatograph-based mass spectrometry (MS or LC/MS) systems to identify, quantify and analyze compounds in many industries such as pharmaceuticals, food safety, environmental and forensics. For example, it is used to find impurities or pesticides. It is also used for disease research such as proteomics. Agilent has announced an entire portfolio of LC/MS systems that is expected to set a new standard in price-performance, reliability and ease-of-use, transforming productivity in laboratories. With the new portfolio, Agilent is now able to address nearly 70 percent of the estimated $1.3 billion LC/MS instrument market, and is expected to nearly double its market share by 2008.

The new Agilent 6000 Series LC/MS portfolio is expected to revolutionize the MS market through dramatically improved reliability. MS reliability is a growing concern in today's marketplace, where researchers are demanding easier, faster systems to address stricter regulations and increasing demand for testing and research. Current MS systems are difficult to use, even for experts.

	Agilent's new line of LC/MS products. The 1200 LC system, shown on the left, and 6000 Series MS family of instruments on the right.

The Agilent 6000 Series matches or exceeds the highest performance in the industry while also providing the ease-of-use that will help laboratories increase their productivity. The Agilent 6000 Series LC/MS portfolio will include five classes of instruments, including the company's first triple quadrupole (triple quad) and quadrupole time-of-flight (Q-TOF) mass spectrometers. The series also includes improved versions of the company's single quadrupole, ion trap and TOF mass spectrometers. Each of the new LC/MS instruments offers the following features that are unique to Agilent:

• Agilent's proprietary autotune technology, which automatically calibrates the instrument with the click of a mouse. This function saves customers hours of tedious work and delays associated with the previous procedure of manual calibration or technical service calls.
• Compatibility with Agilent's multimode source, saving repetition of experiments, and HPLC-Chip technology, which eliminates 50 percent of the fittings and connections typically required in an LC/MS system. Together, these capabilities significantly simplifying workflow while increasing sensitivity and reliability.
• Integrated LC and MS software for a single point of instrument control and data analysis.

"Agilent has applied its expertise in engineering robust instrumentation to make significant improvements in product quality and usability," said Taia Ergueta, general manager of Agilent's LC/MS business. "We believe that improvements in this area will attract not only existing mass spectrometry users, but open the gates to a whole new generation of scientists and technicians."

Mass spectrometry is often used with Liquid Chromatography (LC), which helps to separate the components in a mixture before they are analyzed. All of the 6000 Series mass spectrometers are compatible with Agilent's new 1200 Series LC.

The Agilent 1200 Series LC system, which replaces the market-leading 1100 Series, is the most comprehensive and fastest LC available on the market. Its Rapid Resolution configuration provides up to 20 times faster analysis and 60 percent higher resolution than conventional LC methods. It can process as many as 2000 samples per day. The system can run any traditional LC method and is fully backward-compatible with Agilent's 1100 series, making it the most flexible LC on the market.

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