Gas Analysers

A gas detector answers one question: is there enough of this to hurt somebody. A gas analyser answers a different one: what exactly is in here, and how much.

Those sound similar and they are not. A detector is built around an alarm threshold, so it needs to be accurate near the level that matters and it does not need to be accurate anywhere else. An analyser has no threshold. It is measuring composition because the composition is the product, or because somebody is about to rely on it.

That difference shows up in where these instruments are used.

In food packaging, modified atmosphere works by replacing the air inside a pack with a gas mixture that slows spoilage, usually by displacing oxygen. The whole method depends on the mixture being right and staying right. A leaking seal, a short gas flush or a mixer drifting out of specification produces packs that look correct and fail early. The **[OXYBABY](/products/portable-gas-detectors/gas-analysers/)** samples through the pack wall and reports residual oxygen, or oxygen and carbon dioxide, in seconds. It is cordless and handheld, so the check happens at the machine while the line runs rather than as a laboratory exercise afterwards.

In healthcare the question is what is emerging from a particular outlet before it reaches a patient. A reticulated medical gas system is commissioned and certified, and that confirms the system as it was built. It does not confirm what a specific outlet delivers after a maintenance change, a reconfiguration or a cross connection. The **[OXYBABY med](/products/portable-gas-detectors/gas-analysers/)** connects at the outlet and reports the gas type, the concentration and the line pressure together, so one check covers a cross connection, a dilution and a supply problem.

Both share a characteristic worth understanding. They need very little sample gas, from around two millilitres on the premium version, which means the measurement does not materially change what it is measuring. On a small food pack or a low flow outlet, an instrument that needs a large sample gives a reading that describes the act of sampling as much as the thing sampled.

Documentation is usually the reason these get bought rather than the measurement itself. A HACCP programme needs pack quality demonstrated rather than checked, and a medical gas system needs outlet verification recorded after any intervention. The premium versions log several hundred measurements and export them for analysis, which is what turns a day of spot checks into evidence.

Our Technical Consultants will work through what you are measuring, the sample volume available and whether the result has to be documented, from WA, NSW and QLD.