Quantek’s oxygen analyzers all contain a proprietary electrochemical oxygen sensor. Think of it as a tiny battery, with a tremendously long life time. The sensor itself puts out a very tiny millivolt (mV) signal, which is amplified through our various circuitry, and then converted into the signal on the analyzer’s analog output and LCD.
What we like to emphasize is the extended lifetime of our sensors. Even under heavy usage conditions, the sensor is expected to last 4-5 years. Some customers have even achieved 7 years of useful life, though that is rare.
The bottom line is this: our competition uses either cheap electrochemical sensors, or zirconia sensors. While zirconia sensors are accurate, and last a long time, they are quite expensive and require a warm up time. For most packaging applications, our sensor is superior – it does not need frequent replacement, keeping the total cost of ownership to a minimum. It does not need to warm up to 400 degrees celsius, and is accurate within +/- 1% of your reading.
But most importantly, by choosing our analyzer, your downtime is minimized. If the oxygen sensor in your analyzer is not user replaceable (as many are not), then getting 4-5 years out of the sensor is essential – this ensures that you are not without your analyzer for weeks while the sensor is being replaced at some offsite facility.
Lastly, while we prefer to service the analyzer and replace the sensor in house in order to test its condition and calibrate it when your 4-5 years are up, international customers, or those who wish to replace the sensor themselves, can always purchase a kit from us to do the replacement onsite.