South East Water analyst wins WWEM award

SEAL Analytical ran a competition during WWEM 2018, the water wastewater and environmental monitoring event. The winning entry was submitted by John Robertson, senior chemist in water quality for South East Water, who received his prize at the company’s Farnborough laboratory.

Sadie Vick from SEAL presented John with his prize, commenting: “Visitors were invited to guess the number of flared ICP pump tubes in a jar, and it was surprising how varied the answers were. I congratulate John on his win and it was great to be able to make the presentation alongside one of our Rohasys Minilab robots.”

John’s responsibilities include the development of new methods; responding to changing requirements from the Drinking Water Inspectorate and a wide range of external customers including other water companies, councils and building management organisations. He is also responsible for improvements in lab efficiency and says: “SEAL’s Rohasys robot helps throughput enormously; typically we test hundreds of samples every day and the robot automates the preparation and measurement of turbidity, pH, conductivity and true colour, following automatic filtration.”

The SEAL booth at WWEM 2018 featured a new smaller Minilab robot with a reduced footprint; automating the analysis of 42 samples. The Rohasys robot in the South East Water lab is 1.2 meters wide but other sizes are available to suit different requirements. For example, the largest Rohasys robot to-date is 4 meters wide, automating the analysis of 512 samples.