Scientists and engineers have found our PC-2H Air Particle Analyzer to be the instrument of choice when it comes to getting the full story on indoor or outdoor airborne particulates.

When it comes to getting data on the mass concentration and size distribution of airborne particles inside a building, in an office or at a waiting area in an airport, or in open spaces, our PC-2H 2 lpm flow 10-stage QCM real-time cascade impactor system is just the right instrument for it. First, it is portable enough to be transported to the field easily and be conveniently moved around to make measurements at different parts of the building. Second, it provides mass-based particle concentration and size distribution data in a printout automatically right after a sample run. Third, it covers the complete respirable particle size range of between 10 and 0.05 microns; note that it covers the cigarette smoke size range of about 0.3 micron. Fourth, it retains particle samples on its crystal substrates so that they could be brought back to the laboratory for analysis to determine their physical and chemical make-up so that their toxicity could be assessed. It is for these reasons that a well-know aerosol scientist once said that our PC-2H is the “complete” instrument for doing IAQ air particle research and measurements.

This instrument utilizes well-established inertial impaction principles to separate airborne particulates by size. In addition, it incorporates NASA-developed state of the art electronic QCM mass sensors in each of the impactor stages to determine the amount (mass) of particles collected in each size range, thus giving it real-time data reporting capability. The instrument is supplied complete with pump and all the accessories required for turnkey operation in the field or in the laboratory.

The air inside a nuclear submarine is as “indoors” as it comes. Its quality is of the utmost importance to her crew safety. While modern submarines use elaborate instrumentation to monitor the gas components of the air inside them, the U.S. Navy uses our PC-2H to evaluate and monitor the airborne particles inside them. And they have been doing so for many years. When new generations of ship borne air cleaning systems are purchased, the Navy specified the use of this instrument by their suppliers to test the efficiencies of the new devices.

For outdoor applications, our instruments have been for a variety of measurement projects. They include getting field data of particles emitted by buses at bus stations, assessing particle emissions at sites where ammunition is destroyed, and assessing the concentration and size distribution of smoke particles in the atmosphere near brush fires.