Supporting science Mettler Toledo

SUPPORTING SCIENCE

Global provider of chemical synthesis, engineering and PAT tools Mettler Toledo, is continuing to meet the challenges of the chemical and pharmaceutical industries with its latest product – the OptiMax workstation. Emma-Jane Batey spoke to the head of marketing communications, Mr Urs Groth, to find out more.

Formed in 1989 following the merger of the Swiss Mettler company and Toledo Scale from Columbus, Ohio, manufacturer of precision weighing and measuring instruments, Mettler Toledo has its major operations in both Zurich and Columbus, with a global network of sales and operational offices employing 11,000 people. The company posted a net income of $351 million in 2010 and the publicly listed company is one of the largest manufacturers of carat and gold balances, laboratory balances and industrial weighing balances worldwide.

Mettler Toledo is committed to staying at the forefront of the scientific instruments industry and so invests heavily in product development, gaining much of the information it needs to inspire new products from attending industry events and customer symposiums. The head of marketing communications Mr Urs Groth told Industry Europe why continuous development is at the heart of the operation. He said, “The chemical and pharmaceutical industries in particular have been facing a number of challenges: competitive pressure in R&D, as well as financial and environmental issues are all key drivers for our R&D department to focus on when developing new products. We know that our customers need instruments that support their activities and speed up their process development, bringing products to market

in a faster, more reliable manner. Customers want easy-to-use instruments that are totally reliable, so our dedication to creating more robust, accurate equipment is at our core.”

Understanding challenges

The latest Mettler Toledo investigation into the type of process challenges its customers were facing, specifically in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, garnered a great deal of information on a need for a more reliable yet simple chemical synthesis workstation. Following a detailed communication to clearly understand the ‘burning issues’, the Mettler Toledo R&D team started to create an additional workstation to complement the already-popular EasyMax.

Launched in 2008, the EasyMax workstation is a small, simple and accurately operating synthesis workstation which delivered unparalleled improvements in R&D productivity. It was well-received across the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, with many companies choosing to replace whole laboratories with the space-effective model. Following the great success of the EasyMax, Mettler Toledo’s R&D team worked to create its ‘big brother’, the OptiMax, addressing some of the further advanced needs of laboratories and adding flexibility and additional capabilities.

Mr Groth explained, “The launch of the OptiMax synthesis workstation in May 2011 marked the end of a period of intense R&D and the beginning of an exciting time for our sales and marketing department. Even before the launch we knew there was a great deal of interest from a number of chemical and pharmaceutical companies as it was developed with their cooperation from the start. Throughout the development process they were our sparring partners to make sure that any possible issues were ironed out in advance of production. We are very proud of the OptiMax and it is already being well-received across our active markets.” Accurate and reliable

The OptiMax workstation is the latest in Mettler Toledo’s broad portfolio of scales and analytical instruments and has been created to address its customers’ need to eliminate development bottlenecks, improve productivity in chemical laboratories and guarantee reliable data. With its purpose to deliver accurate and reproducible information about the process under investigation, OptiMax reduces process variability, which is a major issue for many in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries.

Mr Groth is clear that the OptiMax supports the day-to-day activities of Mettler Toledo’s customers as it is an easy-to-use synthesis workstation that simply fits into their existing operations.

Core values of the OptiMax are that it keeps reaction conditions perfectly constant and records experimental data so that experiments and R&D processes are traceable, even when the machine is running unattended. This makes it very easy for the data to be shared worldwide in real time, so customers can exchange information with colleagues in other offices as soon as the tests are conducted, making it a flexible and functional tool. Mr Groth pointed out that the benefits

to the chemists using the personal synthesis workstation are primarily ‘accuracy, reproducibility, unattended operation and traceability’, with the clear and simple touchscreen easy for training so that the scientists can concentrate on chemistry rather than instrumentation.

Mettler Toledo is promoting the OptiMax via its website as well as eBusiness activities, with its global sales team regularly meeting with customers and potential customers. The company also operates a number of ‘info days’ where interested parties are welcome to attend open days at a number of the company’s sites to learn more about the system. Already strong in Europe and the USA, the company is keen to increase its activities in Asia, where it sees a strong potential for its personal synthesis workstations in chemical development laboratories. n

Urs Groth, head of marketing communications