Scientific Computing - HPC Source Emerging Technologies 2014

Welcome to Informatics Snapshot — a feature that highlights the standout properties of the current crop of laboratory informatics systems.

While not intended to be a full formal review of the featured product or to indicate whether the product is considered “good” or “bad,” its purpose is to present some of the “diamonds and rust,” as the Joan Baez song goes. In this article, we’ll take a brief look at the LabX system from Mettler-Toledo International Inc. To eliminate any potential confusion, let me state that this software package is totally unrelated to the LabX Marketplace or any other products of the LabX Media Group.

It is important to realize that, currently, Mettler-Toledo appears to use LabX as more of a brand term than as the name of a specific piece of software.

At the low end of the scale, they have their LabX direct software. Available as both LabX direct balance and LabX direct moisture, these appear to be analogous to Mettler-Toledo’s classic

BalanceLink Software for capturing data from an instrument and pumping it into

John R. Joyce, Ph.D.
and automatic dosing systems. Its control
features are quite impressive and make
it easy to design analysis processes that
are highly intuitive. For example, if you
are weighing out a sample which must be
within a specified weight range, the system
can be configured so that, when the sam-
ple weight is within the correct range, the
balance display turns green, while if it is
above the allowed range, it turns red.
The attentive reader might be having
suspicions right about now, as a balance’s
display cannot change colors unless it is
designed to do so, and the attentive reader
would be correct. To take advantage of
the full capabilities of this system, you
must be using Mettler-Toledo equipment.
Specifically, you must be using their Excel-
lence series. This includes the XP and XS
series balances, the LiquiPhysics density
meter and refractometer, the Thermal Val-
ue melting point systems, and the Quan-
tos dosing systems. These all allow you
to control the measuring process either
remotely or from the instrument.
However, LabX does come with the
capability to interface with ‘foreign’
instruments. While the experience of inter-
facing with these instruments would likely
be more in-line with using BalanceLink
Software, you would be able to collect
data from them. Whether this would be a
deal-breaker or not would likely depend
on the equipment being used in your lab-
oratory and how standardized it is. Many
labs buy only Mettler-Toledo equipment,
so this might not be a big deal, while
others have such a disparate assortment of
instruments that they wouldn’t even both-
er. If a lab fits these requirements, LabX is
an application worthy of closer scrutiny.
It is a modular system that can be con-
figured and run in a variety of ways. LabX
another application. At the high end
of the scale is their LabX Laboratory
Software. The latter application adds sig-
nificant new capabilities that would make
this package very useful for many appli-
cations. It is significantly more than just
a data capture package and incorporates
many LIMS and ELN features. It is this
application that the rest of this article
will focus upon, and which will be meant
when reference is made to LabX. With
the release of LabX version 6.0, some of
the above description is in the process of
changing. Their legacy titration products
have been discontinued and their features
incorporated into LabX. Plans are to
rename all of the existing LabX Direct
products and reserve the LabX name for
their higher level informatics product.

In their literature, Mettler-Toledo refers to LabX as lab instrument control software. However, it also contains some LIMS and ELN features. When it comes to control and integration with laboratory instruments, this application excels. It actually goes well beyond just instrument control, as it also can monitor and enforce compliance with a laboratory’s standard operating procedures (SOP) in a number of areas. For example, if it is configured in the method being used, LabX can require an accuracy test of the balance with standard weights at the start of the run, every given number of samples, or whatever is required by the laboratory. In addition to the calibration of the instrument, LabX can track the preventive maintenance of the instrument and lock out any that are either out of calibration or past their maintenance check.