25 Year Anniversary: The Origin of Evaporating Cups

Elemental Microanalysis, a leading global supplier to the elemental analysis market, manufactures a product which continues to be useful in the market after 25 years.

The simple explanation of what the evaporating cup does, ‘drying liquid samples down to residues prior to feeding into an elemental analyser’, belies the amount of product engineering that went into designing a shape where the residue forms in the bottom of the cup while also allowing easy folding. That explanation also does not highlight the extremely stringent quality control measures which make Elemental’s evaporating cups the leading choice among malting companies.

It started 25 years ago when Elemental was approached by a world-renowned Irish brewery which intended to specify a new, unique encapsulation product for drying their maltings sludge. They were working with an OEM on developing a robust, lightweight product with significant fluid capacity and dual laboratory use capability. The specific parameters of the encapsulation product included:

•  5ml liquid capacity
• Compatible with hotplate evaporator
• Easy to fold whilst containing dry residue
• Lightweight
• Suitable for combustion analysis

In collaboration with the brewery and the OEM, the design team at Elemental expended every effort to produce a tin foil evaporating cup that met the customer’s exacting requirements. Elemental’s team researched, designed, tested, developed, tested, further developed, checked, and tested again to product an appropriate product. Additionally, once the product was perfected, Elemental’s team developed unique packaging to ensure safe product transit for the delicate evaporating cups.

Today, Elemental Microanalysis’s ISO9001 accredited quality system continues to ensure that these evaporating cups - and all other analysis consumables - are of excellent quality at a competitive price. And malting companies across the globe have benefitted from the humble beginnings of the now indispensable evaporating cups.

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