Rick's Corner

Having been employed by AZI for more than 15 years, I began my career here as a set-up technician in our production area where I learned the value of producing high quality instrumentation. I had a root belief that quality is always better than quantity. This belief has been the cornerstone of my behavior inside and outside of the company. From my continued learning and investment in our products and customers, I found that my knowledge of the instruments was valuable to our customers and began assisting the sales folks. It was through this exposure to our customers that helped me realize that the quality of our instruments and service was a critical component to our customers. The professionals that utilize our equipment
are either industry leaders in their fields or professionals that demanded the very best. I migrated into sales after a few years to assist our customers and provide them with the best equipment on the market. It was easy for me to make the claim that we are the best. Not only do I believe this, but AZI is focused on keeping this true. I found great rewards in promoting great product to great customers. Selling for over 10 years has allowed me the opportunity to hear from many of you that word of mouth and referrals is the most effective way to market a great product and company. As a result of our commitment to our customers, AZI chooses to provide higher level service and relationships with our customers.

-Rick Ervin, Director of Sales
rervin@azic.com
www.azic.com

Intermountain Power Service Corporation saved over $335,000.00!

Intermountain Power Service Corporation, which operates and maintains a coal fired power facility located 80 miles south of Salt Lake City, UT in Delta, UT purchased a Computrac® MAX® 2000XL in 2006 to assist in the control of their Wet Limestone Flue Gas Desulfurization Scrubbers. In order to minimize sulfur emissions, limestone slurry is used to bind the sulfur dioxide from the flue gas into Calcium Sulfate (synthetic gypsum), that can be easily landfilled. The addition of an antifoam agent is required to reduce the foaming caused by biological matter carried into the scrubber modules by the limestone slurry and makeup water. The addition of the silicon based antifoaming agent in excessive amounts inhibits the oxidation reaction, resulting in a byproduct of Calcium Sulfite. The Calcium Sulfite has a finer crystalline structure which scales piping and equipment, and is extremely difficult to dewater and landfill. To offset this, IPSC added polymer to aid in settling and removal of the scrubber byproducts. The use of the MAX® 2000XL has allowed IPSC to control the usage of defoamer, by providing a means to quantify how much is too much. This in turn has decreased the amount of polymer being used. The statistics of actual dollars being saved is as follows:

In 2005, IPSC used $329,000.00 in defoamer, whereas in mid-2006, when the company began testing the MAX® 2000XL, the reduction in chemical usage dropped to $252,000.00. In 2007, after a full year of using the MAX® 2000XL, the chemical usage dropped to $88,000.00.®In addition to the MAX® 2000XL saving a significant amount of money on the front end, the
company was also able to utilize the MAX® 2000XL data to control waste solids and reduce polymer usage. The polymer expenses were $110,000 in 2005, $127,000.00 in 2006, and $15,000.00 in 2007.

Ask Stephanie a question-Stephanie Blaha, National Account Representative

sblaha@azic.com

www.azic.com

New instruments

Arizona Instrument recently announced the release of the next generation of bench top moisture and ash analyzers, the Computrac® MAX® 5000XL. The MAX® 5000XL advances the state of the art in rapid moisture and ash analysis with a new temperature controlled balance and high temperature lift compensation algorithm that provides users with more stable and accurate
measurements. The new instrument also features a temperature ramp control feature that allows the MAX® 5000XL to be used for qualitative analyses that were previously only possible using a thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA). It looks identical to the regular MAX®5000, but has some really great new features that will really add to the ease of use.

marketing@azic.com

http://www.azic.com/

Taking a step outside our world, into yours

We all know by now that pretty much every industry, including the foods industry, is making an effort to go green. It seems like every day companies are finding different ways to do so, ranging from very creative ad campaigns to simple day-to-day processes. One interesting new innovation I have recently come across is the redesigned gallon milk jugs that Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, and Costco now have on their shelves. According to the New York Times article, the new jugs are cheaper to ship and better for the environment, the milk is fresher upon arrival to the stores, and it costs less. Like any change that comes about in a product everyone is familiar with, there have been mixed reactions.

I believe that more and more people are getting on board with the going green thing, even if it is just the smallest change, such as remembering to recycle or turning offthe lights or television when leaving a room. Once people start becoming more open-minded about accepting these changes, which we will probably be seeing more of in the near future, we will realize that it really can improve the quality of our life as a whole if we all just do our little part. Do you have any interesting stories or pictures about your experiences with foods that you would like to share?
Email us at marketing@azic.com and we will print your story in a future newsletter!

-Joya Nielsen, Marketing Coordinator
www.azic.com

Spotless Labs...Not just for T.V. anymore!

I was watching an episode of C.S.I. the other day and like any good scientist, I was pointing out to my wife things that obviously were not true of labs in real life. "There is no way you could get any work done in a lab with that type of lighting", I would say. "How on earth could they tell that that paint chip was from a 1982 Oldsmobile? I have never been to any lab that does that much testing and is that clean!" The truth is, although an actual working lab will never look anything like the labs on television crime dramas, that does not mean that we should not strive for excellent housekeeping habits in the real world. A clean lab is a safer more productive lab. If everything has a well-defined place, it is easy to spot when something is not in its place. Random bottles of unknown chemicals lying about are incidents waiting to happen. A commitment to good housekeeping practices does not take too much time either; five minutes at the end of each workday does wonders for the overall polish of the lab. In the end that time investment pays plenty of dividends in the productivity and attitude of the technicians that work there.

-Garrett Rowe, Lab Manager
grow@azic.com
http://www.azic.com/