Comparison of two different approaches toward model transferability in NIR spectroscopy

Recently, efficient methods have become available to transfer a multivariate calibration model from one instrument to another. Two categories can be distinguished: improvement of the robustness of the calibration model by, for example, a proper data preprocessing; and adaptation of the calibration model by, for example, (piecewise) direct standardization. In direct standardization, a subset from the calibration set should be measured on both instruments. Usually, however, the calibration samples cannot be measured on both instruments. When data preprocessing is applied to the transfer of multivariate calibration models, there is no need for remeasurement of a subset on both instruments. In this paper, both categories are compared for the determination of the component concentrations in a ternary mixture of methanol, ethanol, and 1-propanol using NIR spectroscopy. The calibration models obtained on one instrument are transferred to other NIR instruments. It has been found that the results of proper data preprocessing are comparable with the results obtained by direct standardization when the models are transferred over three NIR instruments.