AUTOMATION AND QUALITY IN ANALYTICAL LABORATORIES

After a brief introduction to the generic aspects of automation in ana lytical laboratories, the different approaches to quality in analytica l chemistry are presented and discussed to establish the following dif ferent facets emerging from the combination of quality and automation: automated analytical control of quality of products and systems; qual ity control of automated chemical analysis; and improvement of capital (accuracy and representativeness), basic (sensitivity, precision, and selectivity), and complementary (rapidity, cost, and personnel factor s) analytical features. Several examples are presented to demonstrate the importance of this marriage of convenience in present and future a nalytical chemistry.