Pawkit
Operation
9
Sample Preparation and Insertion
Your Pawkit system comes with 110 disposable
plastic sample cups and 1 stainless steel sample
cup. More cups are always available from Decagon
when you run out.
Sample Preparation
Special care should be taken in preparing the sam-
ple in order to get the best readings possible. Fol-
low these guidelines when preparing samples.
•
Make sure that the sample to be measured is
homogeneous. Multi-component samples (e.g.,
muffins with raisins) or samples that have out-
side coatings (like deep-fried, breaded foods)
can be measured, but may take longer to equili-
brate. Samples like these may require additional
preparation (crushing or grinding) to obtain a
representative sample.
•
Completely cover the bottom of the cup with the
sample, if possible. Pawkit is able to accurately
measure a sample that leave small spaces of the
cup bottom exposed. For example, raisins only
need to be placed in the cup and not flattened
to cover the bottom. A larger sample surface
area increases instrument efficiency by shorten-
ing the time needed to reach vapor equilibrium.
