aWLife: the new water activity meter

The importance of water activity measurement

Very often, if adequate preventive checks are not carried out, part of the water contained in foods, pharmaceutical products and cosmetics may cause bacteria and mold to develop and grow. These microorganisms can affect the shelf life of these products over time and thus their expiration, creating potential health risks for consumers. This fundamental parameter is aw, or water activity.

Water activity (aw) is a measurement of the free water available for chemical and microbiological reactions within a product, unlike moisture content, which only measures the total amount of water present. Measuring water activity is crucial in various sectors such as foods, pharmaceutical products, cosmetics, herbal products and pet food.

Our 30 years of experience 

Steroglass has been the leading water activity company in Italy for over 30 years.

We went from being a distributor of instruments made by other companies to developing our own proprietary instruments for measuring water activity.

Thus in May 2020, WaterLab was launched on the Italian market, and starting in 2021 it was exported, becoming an international success with over 250 units sold. Unlike the traditional capacitive or electrolytic sensors, WaterLab is based on dew point technology, offering greater accuracy and precision.

Changes in the aWLife hardware

• With aWLife we have limited thermal and electromagnetic interference for better repeatability of values (such as through the isolation of the IR sensor by means of a PEEK bushing to avoid disturbances in the IR sensor caused by contact with the cell; or the insertion of a copper plate under the cell board to ground any disturbances).
• We have guaranteed accurate analyses down to very low aw levels by using an increasingly high-performance mirror (we have changed to an average temperature down to -24°C, thus the water activity range of 0.0025-1.0000 is confirmed in the technical specifications).
• We reduced noise levels with the use of new cooling fans.

Changes in the aWLife software and firmware

• We reduced calibration times: the user can choose whether the calibration (for both single and selective modes) should last 2 analyses (shorter time) or 3 analyses (greater accuracy).
• We limited the analytical anomalies due to contaminated cells with a Calibration Curve Anomaly Pop-up at startup, which advises the user on the best procedure to follow.
• We have limited anomalies due to human errors in the selection of standards and during calibration with error messages.
• We added the possibility of resetting the calibration done by the customer (both selective and single).
• We solved the repeatability problems for values greater than 0.920 in non-ideal conditions (high temperature delta, insufficient thermal equilibrium), asking the operator directly to optimize the values.
• We have limited the early interruption of the analysis when it is not necessary. aWLife now has 35 ramps available instead of 20 for each analysis before giving an error of stability not reached. This way, samples that are greasy/oily etc. that are slow to reach equilibrium will arrive all the way to the end of the analysis.
• We have limited the cases of early fogging of the mirror with high aW values, which can distort or obstruct the analysis. This is thanks to the possibility of setting the “Sample too hot” pop-up between 0.5 and 4°C. In this way, for high a w values, it can be lowered down to 0.5 or 1.
• We resolved the limitations of the thermal printer (especially for pharmaceutical companies), making it also possible to connect to an impact printer as an alternative.
• We have made aWLife usable by more people in “levels” mode by adding 15 users + 1 admin, compared to the previous 8 users.
   

Aesthetic changes to aWLife

• We improved production times thanks to new, stronger printed bodies. A better finish and ¼ the lead time compared to previous 3D printing.
• We improved the design with new stickers and new ventilation grills.
   

Launching aWLife on the market

The launching of aWLife is an important milestone in the evolution of Steroglass on the water activity measurement instrumentation market.

The first pre-series lot of 30 instruments for the Italian market is now ready.

aWLife will be presented to our international partners at ACHEMA 2024 in Frankfurt, June 10–14.

The distributing of aWLife to our international partners will also begin with the second production batch of 30 units, estimated for September 2024. We are ready to revolutionize the field of water activity measurement!