I am searching for a fraction collector for our HPLC- System. We need a collector for an analytical column with a flow rates of 250ul/min. The Fraction Volume is about 40-50ul. So I think a collector for a 384 well plate would be good. Were can I find such Collectors? Did anyone has experiences working with such Fraction collectors and where to take a closer look on the hardware? What Collection method would be the best?

I have used Pharmacia fraction collectors with FPLC and low pressure LC but not with HPLC. Anyway Pharmacia has nice and simple fraction collectors that suitable for your volume range. SO go to their web site or contact their sales rep or browse their catalogs and I am sure one of them would be ideal for your application. However connecting the collector to the HPLC system depends on your application. I mean if you are still using an UV detector then you can monitor the peaks before the collection; in that case I am sure you are trying to collect fractions from the UV detector. Now I remember these Pharmacia collectors can program to collect fractions according to the number of drops. SO it would recoginze your fraction size depedning on the number of drops.
Good Luck!

Ananda

Andreas -

Gilson and Isco units seem to be pretty popular, so you might want to consider those also. We see a lot of them, because we sell software that provides high-level automation of them as well as the Pharmacia SuperFrac and SuperRac, and a lot of other HPLC equipment.

Unless you're dealing with a very simple separation with stable baselines and well-resolved peaks, I'd suggest that you evaluate the software as carefully as the hardware, or you may end up with some unpleasant surprises. Most fraction collection automation solutions let you trigger fractions based on either time, signal level, or slope, but these choices are only sufficient for very simple separations; they don't deal well with realities like drifting baselines, overranged peaks, and riders. For many real-world cases, you need combinations of criteria to get the right fractions reliably collected. An article by authors at Novartis Crop Protection in Basel cites the use of signal level in combination with slope: Journal of Chromatography A, 908 (2001) 143–148.

If you want to check out our software or talk to some local customers who have worked through some fraction collection challenges, you can contact our Swiss office at www.dionex.ch.

Regards and good luck.