By J Richardson on Sunday, January 4, 2004 - 01:57 am:

Are there any users of Hitachi Amino acid analysers wishing to exchange info etc

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By Anonymous on Tuesday, March 23, 2004 - 11:54 am:

We use an L8800a? Is this the same model as yours?

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By DeimerlyC on Wednesday, April 21, 2004 - 11:23 am:

Some time ago we needed to replace a Beckman 6300 Analyzer. I was encouraged to attend PittCon and made some discoveries. I found many different ways to analyze our protein hydrolysates, but only two manufacturers still did post-col ninhydrin derivatization, Hitachi and Knauer. Everyone else seems to go towards pre-col derivatization (see EZ:faast, PicoTag, etc.). Since I was restrained by company policy to only purchase a post-col instrument, I had to choose from these two.

It looked like Hitachi's 8800 was simply an update with replumbing of the Beckman, and the Knauer A100 had modern tubing, an original design, and a smaller unit size. We went with the new upgrade, the A200.

We have had some problems getting the instrument validated due to it's newness, but I have heard there are many people complaining about the 8800 as well. I'd like to hear more about the 8800 if we need to purchase one of those.

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By Malcolm Lee on Saturday, July 10, 2004 - 01:18 am:

There is also another option which is from Biochrom (Cambridge UK) and which is a proven successor to the Beckman units.
This is worth a look as it will resolve many of the issues you face
www.biochrom.co.uk will give you the information as a starting point
Regards

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By Anonimous on Tuesday, July 27, 2004 - 08:27 am:

We have and Hitachi L-8500 and are very happy about it, I know of another lab that has recently (a year or two ago) replaced their Beckman 6300 by an L-8800 and they seem quite happy. The Biochrom possibility seems to work as well, at least for hydrolysates

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By Malcolm Lee on Friday, July 30, 2004 - 02:52 pm:

It would be interesting to compare data and views on the operation of the systems. There is also some new information on faster analysis about to be released from Biochrom
Please let me know if you would like details