Accelerate production and delivery of premium quality cork wine stoppers with the world’s first high-throughput, industrial solution for off-flavor analysis and sorting
The Vocus Cork Analyzer tests individual stoppers for the presence of TCA and other off flavors and automatically sorts the stoppers according to detected concentrations.
The Vocus Cork Analyzer couples our fast, sensitive Vocus mass spectrometer to an industrial scale autosampler and sorter. Stoppers are analyzed directly without any soaking or destruction. TCA is measured quantitatively with high sensitivity and precision.
Linear Quantitative Response
The intensity of the signal recorded by the Vocus Cork Analyzer is directly proportional to TCA concentration, enabling accurate determination of TCA levels in individual cork stoppers.
Signals recorded by the Vocus Cork Analyzer for a set of externally calibrated cork stoppers having TCA concentrations between 0.3 and 20 ng/L, each measured for 3 seconds.
Ultra-Low Detection Limits in Seconds
The Vocus Cork Analyzer rapidly measures TCA below the sensory threshold in individual cork stoppers and physically sorts each stopper according to the detected concentration.
Measured TCA concentrations for a set of 100 stoppers (3 second/cork; 5 minutes total; logarithmic plot). A sensory panel identified stoppers shown in red as being contaminated with TCA and determined those in green to be clean. The Vocus measurements identify the same contaminated corks as the sensory panel, and further identify many other stoppers with concentrations close to 0.5 ng/L.
Reproducible
The Vocus Cork Analyzer precisely reports TCA concentrations – reproducing the same results for individual stoppers measured repeatedly across weeks.
A set of cork stoppers having a wide range of TCA concentrations was measured twice, with two weeks between measurements. The measured concentrations for each stopper were consistent across the successive measurements.
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Compatible Cork Stoppers |
Material: Natural cork Outer diameter: 24 – 26 mm Length: 39 – 54 mm |
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Analysis Time |
≤ 5 seconds per stopper |
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Stoppers / Year |
> 6’000’000 |
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Limit of Detection, TCA |
0.05 ng/L* |
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Maximum Concentration, TCA |
5000 ng/L*
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Sorting Bins |
Up to 4 operator-defined concentration ranges |
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Dimensions |
3.31 x 2.45 x 2.00 m Excluding cork stopper feeder |
*Equivalent to the releasable TCA analysis performed in accordance to ISO 20752
2020
Cappellin, L.; Lopez-Hilfiker, F.; Pospisilova, V.; Ciotti, L.; Pastore, P.; Gonin, M.; Hutterli, M.A. Thermal Desorption – Vocus enables on-line non-destructive quantification of 2,4,6-trichloroanisole in cork stoppers below the perception threshold. Analytical Chemistry, 2020. DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.0c01326
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