Market leaders in temperature controlled microscopy, Linkam Scientific Instruments, in partnership with Cyversa announce the availability of VISTA, a visual approach to thermal analysis.

The product made its debut at TAC 2015, Churchill College, Cambridge, March 30^th – April 1^st.

Linkam Scientific Instruments have collaborated with renowned UK inventor and innovating researcher, Professor Mike Reading of the University of Huddersfield. They have developed a product line of instrumentation based on new technologies that were announced at the 50th Anniversary meeting of the UK's Thermal Methods Group at Churchill College, Cambridge. 

VISTA offers a new approach to thermal analysis through a visualisation-through-software approach. The first phase of VISTA combines the characterisation power of thermal analysis with the imaging capabilities of modern optical microscopy. In a typical thermal analysis experiment, the sample is 'hidden' from the operator within the depths of the instrument and the only means of understanding what is happening during the measurement is from the instruments transducer (mass, length, heat flow, modulus etc.). 

Linkam's Imaging Station is at the heart of the VISTA system and when combined with their new DSC600 VISTA hot stage, enables images of the sample to be simultaneously captured during an experiment. An image processing software module from Cyversa analyses these images to produce thermal curves based upon the changes in sample features observed during the experiment. 

The image analysis produces curves that are complimentary to DSC and enable the characterisation of melting, softening and even dissolution behaviour by tracking features observed on the surface of the sample as it is heated or cooled. This new analytical method is called TASC (Thermal Analysis by Structural Characterisation). 

Unlike DSC, sensitivity is not reduced with smaller samples and lower heating rates and whilst DSC is a bulk measurement tool, TASC enables individual regions of the sample to be measured and analysed. TASC is the first of a family of analytical modes for the VISTA platform delivering a collection of patented techniques that enable a visual approach to thermal analysis and materials characterisation. VISTA is modular, meaning new modes may be added as laboratory requirements change and grow.

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