Assessment of analytical quality in automatic flow systems

The three types of flow systems most frequently used for the automatic photometric determination of elementary parameters were systematically assessed for quality. Each type of manifold was characterized in terms of precision, sensitivity, and throughput. The uncertainty introduced by each flow unit in the manifold is assessed in standard deviation units. The systems were also tested for ruggedness of both flow injection and chemical variables. The results obtained were used as the basis for the evaluation of papers reported in literature.