Hi everyone

I'm in the process of doing an HPLC evaluation. I will be looking at HP 1100 and Shimadzu systems. We are currently using Waters Alliance systems together with Millennium 32 software. Our need for this evaluation was due to the high maintenance cost on the Alliance systems(especiaaly the pumps). Does anyone have any experience with HP cerity software? Any comments on the above systems with regards to software,maitenance etc. would be greately appreciated.
Many Thanks

I don't know which type of maintenace you are faced with; if it's about consumable parts (seals and sometimes pistons), you must know that these needs may greatly depend on the nature of the eluents you pump.
I have no experience with Alliance; Agilent 1100 usually does not require a lot of maintenance with classical eluents.
With Agilent, you can choose between quaternary low pressure gradient (similar path as Alliance where the pump sees the mixture) and binary high pressure gradient pump (where the mixture happens after each group of pump heads have seen individual components); generally non-mixed eluents are less agressive, or at least damage is limited to the heads that see the agressive component; but don't forget an Agilent binary pump has 4 seals and pistons ...
About software, it is difficult to have experience with Cerity as it has only been released last June, but is seems like a promising product.
Anyway, If you have to work in a CFR21 part 11 regulated environment, forget about Shimadzu (at least from what I know about their software).

I work only with the Agilent 1100 HPLC. We have ~ 170 systems in use. They are very robust machines. After the one year warranty, the most expensive parts are the pulse dampers (transducer) and the transport assemblies. Seals, check valves and pistons are fine.

Dear Beppe

if you are talking about 21CFR part 11.
You should not judge any sw, which has been designed, when no one was even thinking about
part 11.
Current Shimadzu software solutions provide much more than just 21 CFR part11 compliance (not only in broschures and advertisements).

A shimadzu employee