Grotech spends £36,000 to bring its testing capability in-house

The company, which has a turnover of between £1.5m and £2m, said the spectrometer will allow it to perform rapid, reliable and flexible testing on both liquid and solid samples.

The near infra-red (NIR) spectrometer reduces production downtime and improves product quality, according to the Goole-based company.

The specialist kit uses the interaction of near-infrared radiation with matter to perform its measurement. This form of vibrational spectroscopy can be used to analyse numerous different types of sample to determine their composition and physical properties.

Grotech Production, which has 26 members of staff, serves the agrochemical and general chemical sectors. “Investing in the NIR technology is a hugely exciting prospect for Grotech,” managing director Martin Usher said.

“The spectrometer will make a significant difference to our everyday production process, enabling us to speed up delivery times, reduce costs to customers and most importantly provide a higher level of quality control.

“Not only can we test products rapidly in the lab, we’ll be able to carry out tests on raw materials from customers – allowing us both to identify possible problems before the formulation process begins – saving even more time and money. The potential for using the capabilities of the machine is enormous”

By feeding the spectrometer with a range of reference sample data, Grotech said it will be able to ‘train’ the instrument to recognise patterns within a sample.

Grotech said it will be able to better understand materials and samples and so to tweak them in line with the spectroscopic result – ensuring every batch of customer product is compliant with client expectations and standards before it leaves the production floor.