Agilent and Waters confirm instrument control exchange

Agilent Technologies has announced a formal agreement with fellow life science company Waters that will see the companies exchange instrument controls.

This will replace earlier provisions, under which Agilent implemented control of Waters instruments in the Agilent OpenLAB chromatography data system, while Waters offered control of Agilent's liquid chromatography instruments via its Empower Software.

With the new deal, terms and conditions have been laid down detailing how the companies will exchange instrument control documentation and driver software, as well as how they will provide developer and technical support to one another.

This deal will ultimately provide better support for and enhance the productivity of customers who own software and instruments from both companies.

John Sadler, Agilent's vice-president and general manager of software and informatics, said: "We are integrating a full complement of third-party gas and liquid chromatography instruments into our OpenLAB software suite in collaboration with other analytical instrument manufacturers."