Agilent and Shimadzu agree chromatography technology alliance

Agilent Technologies has announced that it will be exchanging RapidControl.Net (RC.Net) instrument drivers with Shimadzu.

Through this agreement, the same technology will govern both the Shimadzu LabSolutions and Agilent OpenLAB chromatography data systems (CDSs), thus strengthening RC.Net as an emerging open industry standard for instrument control.

It means that customers will have more freedom of choice in instrumentation for their laboratories regardless of which system they use, while users can also preserve their investment in workflow definition and supporting operating procedures.

The new Shimadzu RC.Net drivers will be made available on Agilent's OpenLAB CDS later this month, while Shimadzu's LabSolutions CDS will gain the Agilent HPLC RC.Net drivers in August.

Bruce von Herrmann, general manager of Agilent Software and Informatics, said: "At Agilent we are fully committed to bringing instrument control solutions for the most popular chromatography instruments into OpenLAB CDS."

Earlier this month, Agilent allied with the University of Rouen and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research in Singapore to develop new tools for analysing biologics and vaccines.