Bruker Minispec

Bruker's minispec activities started in 1970 with the idea to build an NMR equipment for time-domain solid to liquid type analysis. This idea was also born at Unilever Research in Vlaardingen / The Netherlands where melting curve determinations of fat compositions were of major interest. Finally in 1972 the first generation of minispecs - the p20 minispec system - was introduced. This was the first pulsed NMR bench-top instrument on the market - operating at 20 MHz NMR measurement frequency.

Only a couple of months later - in 1973 - the 2nd generation of minispecs - the p20i - was introduced. The application range of this generation was already expanded to relaxation time measurements and further analysis. The added 'i' indicated its specific applications in industries. 'p20' anyway indicated the instrument as a Pulsed NMR unit, operating at 20 MHz.

In 1980 the pc10 / pc20 minispec generation was introduced - expanding the application range also to the absolute type of minispec applications, like fat content in chocolate or oil in smaller oilseeds. Moreover the applications of this system became further expanded to other types of industries, as Polymer -, Chemical - or Pharmaceutical Industries.

The pc10 / pc 20 was the first microprocessor controlled minispec instrument. Its operation in the pulsed NMR mode became increasingly accepted as far superior to the dated continues wave (cw) methods.

In the same year the pc10 / pc20 was selected by Industrial R&D as one of the most significant new technical products of the year. The IR100 Award was presented to Bruker for this new minispec development.

Only 3 years later, in 1983, the pc100 minispec series was introduced, offering two cabinets for separation between magnet & electronics (e.g. of advantage in toxic surroundings) and also accommodating a variety of bigger magnets in its housing. This opened the door to further applications, like oil and moisture content simultaneously in big seeds, nuts or sulphur. This unit can be either controlled from the electronics console or from a personal computer.

PC software packages for absolute measurements as well as relaxation time analysis were available.

In 1993, the NMS100 minispec series was introduced, updated on state of the art electronics and data handling - PC standard features became available. Moreover the instrument is equipped with a very powerful programming language called ExpSpel - allowing ultimate flexibility in experiment definition and measurement handling. Other application fields like fluorine detection or high / low temperature analysis [-100°C ... +200°C] were introduced - just to mention a few.

Alternatively this equipment can be also controlled via Windows 9x or NT software, thus fulfilling the requirements for QC as well as Research & Development.

The biggest step in time-domain pulsed NMR developments can be seen in the introduction of the latest minispec mq-series in 1999. The system - fully PC controlled - offers almost unlimited possibilities for routine and Research & Development applications. Its hardware features can easily be compared to HR-NMR equipment, therefore opening the door to application developments also for smaller companies and Universities. Routine users will be pleased to find an ultimate user-friendly, easy to handle Windows software. Big measurement procedures can be prepared in a run.