Mettler-Toledo International Inc. (MTD) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Hello, everybody, from Switzerland. It's 4:00 in the afternoon here. It's raining cats and dogs outside. And we're happy that we are sitting inside and now can go with you through this webinar about successful micro volume measurements. When I speak of we, I mean, our team, With me in the room is Claudia Haller. She will be the moderator in the chat today. So if you have any questions, she will be online and answering them. And my name is Anika, I'm a product manager for UV/VIS products here at Mettler-Toledo in Switzerland, and I will guide you through the presentation today. In case, I am not to be -- in case you can't hear me at the moment, it might be that you have selected a wrong speaker. So what we are showing here is the settings of Teams in case you are not familiar yet with the software. There you could change the sound device. And if you encounter any sound problems during the webinar, try maybe to redial in or leave a message in the chat so that we will know that maybe the technical problem is on our side. Before we start, we have some rules of conduct for our webinars at Mettler-Toledo. First is that we use the chat function during the presentation. That's why we have a moderator in place so that your question can be answered right away. And we will have a Q&A session at the end of the presentation, which will be approximately in 30 minutes where we will read out the questions, which have not been answered yet or if you want to speak up and ask your question in the plenum, it's your chance then to do so. To give you a heads up after the webinar, you will receive a feedback form asking you about how you liked the webinar. And there you can rate it and also send further requests. If you have further interest in the product or you want to get in touch with us. And for a smooth webinar experience, we would now ask you to mute your line, if not yet done, and turn off your cameras so that we are not disturbed and can fully concentrate on the slides. This having said, we would like to give you a short overview about Mettler-Toledo and our solutions. Mettler-Toledo has 5 divisions, which are laboratory solutions, where we are at the moment at the first left in the picture. There's process analytics, industrial weighing, product inspection, logistics solutions and retail, which means Mettler-Toledo is present along the whole value chain from product development until the product goes to the end customers. This gives you as customers or the customers of Mettler-Toledo, the advantage of streamlined processes. So all our products talk with each other and you have a one-stop partner going with you from the research and development until the product has reached the retail. And you will find us around the world, our market organizations are spread over 40 countries, providing full support and service with about 8,000 local sales, marketing and service specialists. We are one of the largest global sales and service organizations among precision instrument companies. So be sure that if you have any concern, any problem or any product interest you'll find a partner near you. And if not, you can see the light blue countries there you will find distributors, which will be your first point of contact. Okay, so much about Mettler-Toledo, and I'd say, let's start with the topic. This is the agenda for today. I would like to begin with a general introduction to micro volume analysis followed by the basics of micro volume UV Vis spectroscopy. I will then discuss the important steps to be followed during the measurement, which are proper liquid handling, cleaning procedure, software and service. I will then touch upon the tips and tricks. And the seminar will be concluded with the take-home message and a few additional information about product and where you can find our library with posters, application notes and everything we have in our knowledge database. So I would say let's get started with some word cloud, where I have been trying to collect probable or a probable -- mistakes, probable issues, which can occur during your micro volume measurement. And all of them might be familiar with you and all of them have an influence on the final results of your measurement. Just giving -- just reading some out, which could be data management, which is often totally underestimated, your performance or you might have the perfect technique, your instrument might be perfectly calibrated but if data management has the problem. Your data will be erroneous nonetheless. So in this webinar, we'll try to catch up on most of these topics and show you how to avoid these in your daily measurements. So to say how to improve your micro volume analysis and to give us all a start what is micro volume analysis, we would like to start with the basics, starting with the explanation of what the difference is to macro volume measurements and we'll give 2 examples of typical micro volume UV Vis applications. In the -- on the QR code will lead you to our Life Science guide, just simply put out your mobile phone and scan it and then you are lead to a landing page where you can directly access the guide. All right. What you can see on this slide are the 2 principal modes for performing micro volume measurements, which are manual and automated methods. On the right side, you can see the manual method where a TrayCell is used, which compromises a fiber optic measuring cell and a cap with an integrated mirror. If you want to change the path length, then you can change the lid on top of the TrayCell, which leads to the point that if you wanted to then calculate your results, you'll have to do that manually. So the path length is manually chosen. Thus, the concentration needs to be manually calculated. Whereas on the right side, you see an example of a micro volume platform, of an automated micro volume system. There, the path length is selected automatically, along with the calculations. So all you have to do is to put your sample drop on the platform and perform the measurement, and you'll see the automated -- calculated results directly on the screen. To give us a greater picture, this is how the whole instrument looks like. This is a typical micro volume spectrophotometer which can measure sample volumes as low as 1 microliter. The concentration of the analyte is then measured in order of, for example, nanogram or microgram per milliliter and this is, to say it right, in the beginning, of course, an ideal choice for biomolecular analysis because you only have very limited sample available. Putting it into comparison with a macro volume instrument, which you can see on the right. On the left, you can see you have the arm, you have the micro volume platform. You have the pipette where the sample is in the tip. It simply needs to be put on -- the little drop that needs to be put on the micro volume platform, whereas on the right side, there are several preparation steps. You can see the blue cuvette being inserted into the instrument. Meaning that the sample needs to be diluted before the measurement can be performed. Besides that, the size of the 2 instruments is pretty much comparable. So when it comes to the difference, we might need to look more into a technical point of view, which I can show you here. Which gives you both ways of measurement first, and this is the light beam, which goes to the mirror and the little platform on top. So then we have a light source at the left side of the slide, the light goes into -- through a glass fiber through the sample. Drop is reflected at the mirror and then goes back into the instrument through an entrance slit [ integrating ] and the light fall then onto the sensor. If you perform macro volume, meaning a cuvette measurement, then the light beam would go the other path through the cuvette and it's the same then the light will pass through the cuvette, through the slit, and then the light beam will fall onto the sensor. And as you can see in this graph, 1 color is left out. So in this example, the color blue would have been absorbed by the sample. Which leads to some advantages and disadvantages of both measurement techniques, whereas when you do a cuvette-based measurement, you need to dilute it, you need to rinse and dry you cuvette between the measurements. The advantage of micro volume measurements is that you can save on dilution steps, and you can analyze the sample directly, which, of course, saves a lot of time. Again, cuvette-based measurements, you have multiple pipetting and diluting steps beforehand, before you have your sample in the right concentration to measure whereas on micro volume platforms, there are no dilution steps needed and you can directly start the measurement. Also, glass cuvettes can be expensive. Disposable cuvettes leads to a huge amount of plastic wastage. Micro volume, again, you don't need a cuvette thus don't have to spend whether money or waste on this point. And last but not least, of course, if you have to dilute a sample, this consumes time and effort, there is micro volume this time and efforts are saved. Okay, that having said, let's dig into -- let's dive into some applications, one of the most common applications would be DNA measurement. This is often used in biopharma or Life Science in the R&D or quality control. This type of analysis becomes extremely beneficial in Life Science to prevent failures from proceeding downstream experiments, so we can study concentrated precious biological samples without dilution. And as you can see on the little picture, only 1 droplet of your precious sample is needed to perform a concentration or a purity test of your DNA. Another example would be protein measurement, bovine serum albumin can be analyzed for its protein concentration. Just as an example, we can measure this absorbents -- its absorbents at 280 nanometers, this is possible due to the presence of amino acids like tyrosine or tryptophan having absorbents at 280 nanometers. And this analysis can also be performed via a macro cuvette, but saves a lot of time and sample when the sample is measured directly on the micro volume platform. Having given these 2 examples, we would like to show you a little live demo of how such a measurement can be performed. I show a video. I hope it will run. And that's all you have to -- power on the instrument. The instrument has started. You then have the possibility of logging into your user account. So it's possible to have several users on 1 instrument working. You then select the shortcut of dsDNA to start the measurement, the shortcut already has all information you need for the measurement. So what we now do is we have to prepare the blank, so open the platform and pipette a little droplet of blank onto the platform, close the arm and start the blank measurement. When the bank measurement is initiated and the measurement runs for approximately 5 seconds -- 3, 2, 1, here you go. Then we'll open the arm again and take away the blank droplet by taking a lint free tissue and cleaning the platform and the mirror and then we can pipette the sample droplet onto the platform. Measure the sample again. And I'll stop the video if it'll let me -- so what you can see now on the screen is the calculated concentration and in the 2 blue boxes at the bottom, you have already the concentration ratio -- continue I'm sorry, where is my mouse -- so here we are , so we can see the ratio, which has already been calculated from A260 in A280 or A260 in A230, which gives you an indication of purity of your sample. This is, as I said, the standard dsDNA application, we have started, and there is the possibility of individualizing this screen to your needs or to whatever concentrations or sample information is needed. Now obviously, we'll let the video run to the end, you have also the chance to look into the spectrum directly on the instrument. And as you can see on top, all of this from powering on the instrument until you can see the first results can be done within 1 minute and 30 seconds or which even sounds better within 90 seconds. So much about the basics of micro volume measurements. And now we would like to continue as soon as I've found my mouse back on the screen, here we are. We'd like to continue with the 4 pillars of how you can optimize the quality of your measurements or how you can improve your micro volume measurements. The first pillar, as we said in the introduction, is liquid handling. So we'll have a look on the pipetting technique, dispensing technique and how to applicate the sample onto the platform. Again, we have put a QR code on the slide. If you scan this, you'll have access to poster giving you tips and tricks of the correct pipette handling when using a micro volume instrument. So let's start with pipetting technique and the immersion depth. So while pipetting a solution one should ensure that the tip is away from the bottom of the vessel. So if we have only that very little sample available, we should think of not immersing the tip more than 1 or 2-millimeter into the sample vessel. If the tip is immersed too far into the vessel, it can be that there are droplets hanging outside the tip, which will be then transferred to the micro volume platform which can cause that too much liquid is running onto the platform. And if you have the tip outside or if you have -- if you don't dip in the tip, deep enough, you might pull air into the tip, which is also something we don't want to see for the measurement. And if you follow this rule for immersion depth, it is calculated that you can improve your measurement accuracy by up to 5%. Another point you should consider is to maintain a vertical angle while performing your pipetting. If your angle is greater than 20 degrees from vertical that can produce inaccurate measurements and too much liquid can be drawn into the tip, resulting again in an inaccurate aspiration. And thus, we can say that the angle is close to vertical as possible can improve your currency by up to 2.5%. And which if we add that up, 5% plus 2.5% is already an improvement of 7.5%. Then another thing we can look up is there are 2 ways to perform pipetting. One is the forward pipetting method, which you can see in the upper row and the second is the reverse pipetting method. In forward pipetting, the plunger is pressed only up to the first stop, as shown in the diagram. And this method is recommended for aqueous solutions. In reverse pipetting, the plunger is pressed all the way to the second stop, and such type of pipetting is generally referred for viscous or high-density solutions. What is very important is, and this is why I put a little box around it. You have to take care when it comes to the blowout. If you if you push the plunger too far down, you might end up in pressing out air into the droplet and then your droplet has air traps inside. So here, you really need to be careful not to push the plunger into the roll out. So what we did is we have been noting down 6 simple steps for better results. Our recommendation would be to pipette 3 microliters of sample into the micro pipette tip, which should ideally be a plastic tip and not the glass tip. Why? I'll explain later. Second is to place your hand on top of the instrument as shown on the picture just that you can stabilize the pipette and the tip. Third would be rest the tip of the micro -- on the center of the measuring window. And here, it's important -- here, it comes why it's important that it's not a glass tip. If you rest a glass tip on the measurement window, it can lead to scratches. So here really look out that you'll use a plastic tip for that step. Then fourth step would be carefully pipette the sample onto the center of the [ quartz ] measuring window. And then you have to take a really close look at your droplet. And if the droplet does not [ speed ] up or if air is trapped in the droplet. Block the droplet off and repeat the previous step. This is important. You should never ever measure a droplet which is broken. I will show you on the next slide. Why? And this can lead to wrong results, which you then have to carry through your measurement series. So really take care of your droplet and make sure that it's the perfect droplet you have on your platform. After ensured that your droplet is perfectly well. Close the micro volume arm and perform the measurement as we have just seen in the video. So this would be a proper dispensation on the platform on the right side. You have a really nice droplet on the platform. And if the droplet is nicely formed and we closed the arm, the light passes entirely through the sample since the arm compresses the droplet a bit. And if you now have -- if you imagine you have a flattened droplet, then as you can see on the picture on the right side, it might be that the light passes proportion of sample and a portion of air and the measurement is not performed then entirely through the sample, and this will lead to an incorrect determination. So really ensure or make sure that your droplet is perfectly well formed. So this will be the first pillar, how you can improve your results. The second pillar is equally important, which is the cleaning procedure. And we will shortly cover which parts need to be cleaned. Dos and don'ts and how he can simply perform a cleanliness check to see if your instrument is ready for the next measurement series. Again, a QR code -- I've added a QR code, which will lead you to a YouTube video showing the whole performance of how you can clean in between samples, sample measuring and how you can clean the instrument after a measurement series was completed. So having a look at the instruments, we have the upper mirror and the micro volume platform which are the most important part for your analysis. Both parts should be considered as the optical windows of a cuvette. So these parts need to be perfectly cleaned to achieve accurate and repeatable results. And how you can ensure that they are clean and how you can clean them. We have collected some do's and don'ts maybe starting with the do's, which would mean, please ever wear gloves during the analysis and the cleaning. As you have seen, the micro volume platform as well as the mirror are very, very small. And any residues from your fingers are very, very -- have a very high impact on your measurement results. Also a do is remove lint and dust and/or traces of water or a sample, which might be still on the platform. And our tip would be to use a magnifying glass, maybe even with an LED integrated so that you can really have a closer look at the platform and the mirror and ensure that it's free of any traces and any dust. When it comes to cleaning, we propose to use a lint free optical tissue with a cleaning agent. And after you've cleaned it, we recommend to dry mirror and platform, again, either with a new lint free tissue or if available with an air blower. Then wipe the mirror and the platform thoroughly, this might come naturally. And if you need to -- so it might be that you have been analyzing some very concentrated protein samples and you need a more intensive cleaning of the instrument then our proposal would be to apply about 10-microliter of deionized water onto the platform and let it act for a few minutes before you dry it and then take it off again. Coming to the don'ts, which would mean never analyze a sample on an unclean platform. Again, 1 sample -- the first sample of a measurement series can ruin your whole sample series. Then second don't is don't use chemicals or agents, which are not recommended by the instrument supplier. In case you are unsure, just get in touch with your instrument supplier. In our case, we have been listing the cleaning agents in the little blue box. Then another don't would be to twirl the mirror during the sample series. And the last don't is don't leave any samples or cleaning agents on the platform for a prolonged time as this can hurt the surface. So let's assume you have been following all these do's and don'ts and have been performed your cleaning procedure. What you want to check if you did it well. Then this would be our -- this will be our tip. So you can ensure your thorough cleaning by performing a blank run wherein the absorbents measured for the blank sample would indicate the degree of cleanliness. So if the absorbents measured for the blank is 0, it indicates your cleaning was successful. However, if the absorbents value is still too high, it means that the cleaning was not sufficient and the platform should be cleaned again. That's it, that's our good practice for cleaning. So let's continue to the third pillar, which would be the laboratory software. In this section, we have a look at the laboratory workflow, what is metadata and how can you ensure data integrity and compliance. Again, I've added a QR code to the slide, which will lead you to a data integrity webinar in case you are more interested in this topic. So this slide might look a little crowded. But when we think about a measurement in the lab, we tend to think about it as a quite simple process by simply inserting a sample in an instrument and producing a measurement value. However, if we look at the bigger picture, which you can see on the slide, all of a sudden that seemingly simple process gets much more complex. So in order to produce good quality data, we have to look beyond the simple act of performing a measurement and consider the whole chain of events and actions surrounding the measurement itself. Each of those steps will influence the final quality of the data and should be analyzed and considered to find possible pitfalls. Meaning, you have been studied or you have been improving your pipetting technique, check. You have been very, very thoroughly cleaning your UV Vis spectrophotometer, check. You have -- you perform, you have pipetted the perfect sample drop onto the platform. But then in the end, you write a wrong number into the lab [indiscernible] because you have somehow misread -- you have been -- you have been thinking of someone else or something else. There has been something going on in the lab. And your perfectly measurement sample gets somehow lost. This is what we are referring to here. So have a look at all these events, which might independent with your measurement. Starting from having a calibrated instrument, have you correctly identified the sample? Is there an SOP you have to follow? Then you might be, in this case, with micro volume measurements, you don't have dilution steps. But for cuvette measurement, for instance, you then have to dilute the sample. You have to enter the dilution factor into the instrument. So all along the way, there can be mistakes by data transfer. And if you look into a laboratory software, for instance, these pitfalls can be avoided. So the calibration will be noted down in the software if you have a barcode scanner, your sample identification will be run through the system by simply scanning the sample number. If you have a workflow indicated in your software, the SOP will pop up on the instrument screen and will guide through the measurement. And of course, the sample data is automated -- is automatically calculated and been saved into your database. And when speaking of the data, which can be saved, which can be transferred by a laboratory software. This is all what we consider as metadata. It can be a sample ID, it can be an operator, it can be a method, it can be a calculation, it can be a dilution factor. So all of these things are collected within the software and can't get lost. Otherwise, of course, you could capture all the required metadata by hand, but it will let -- but then you just imagine how many mistakes would happen and how often relevant metadata would be forgotten. Not to mention how long that would take. So having an electronic system in place that automatically collects all relevant metadata during the analysis can ensure completeness of the data and streamline your whole process. And this is what I would like to point out. So the benefit would be data integrity and all the trails reduce time-consuming steps with automatic calculation and documentation of results. And your results meet with regulatory and data integrity standards and thus allows a smooth integration into other systems, maybe your LIMS system, maybe other instrument software. Okay. So having pointed out the liquid handling, the cleaning of your instrument and how your data should be handled. Last but not least, we want to have a look at service and it's important of your instruments. So appropriate services are an essential part of good measurement practices and Mettler-Toledo ensures equipment is always operating at peak performance due to qualified equipment, maintain accuracy and increased lifetime. Meaning, you note it from your car. It needs to be serviced regulatory to have -- to be in top state. It's the same with your laboratory instrument. So you at first, you have to choose the right instrument for your application. Meaning the qualification, then the accuracy needs to be maintained, why you're measuring and then regular service can increase the lifetime of your instruments so that you can have the maximum out of your invest. Meaning minimize risks, maximize performance. So what we offer is a startup pack in EQPac, you can have calibration and certification. And in routine operations, we are speaking of preventative maintenance and, of course, training and support, how to use the instrument and to go even further when it comes to support. We provide application notes and white papers and guidelines, how to perform certain measurement. Then when going from the micro volume instrument to what is the next most important instrument used in this measurement cycle or in this workflow, which is the pipette. So you should also ensure the optimum pipette performance by following the routine procedures such as preventive maintenance, calibration and good pipetting practice. For the pipette in general, 2 ways, one is on-site support and the other. We also have a sent-in service so that you can send in your pipettes for calibration. So that will be the 4 pillars of what can help you to make your micro volume measurements even more successful. And we have been thinking of summing this up in some tips and tricks. Starting with the perfect sample job. Again, you can see on the right side, [ flattened ] sample job, if you see that, please don't even close the arms, don't bother with it. Redo the pipetting and try again. And also, you can see like the -- like bubble in the droplet, if air traps inside the sample drop please, again, take away the sample job and pipette it new. When it comes to how to operate the system, there is one thing we would like to point out, which is opening and closing the micro volume arm. So as you can see, it's an arm. And if you don't close it, but just let it fall on to the micro volume platform, you can again have the problem that the sample might splash away that you have then, again, air trapped inside this thing. So just be cautious with your actions as this is a high precision instrument. Then we have a tip on how to set the pipette volume, our tip would be to always dial down the head of the pipette towards the desired volume setting. Meaning turn the selector wheel about 1/3 turn above the desired volume setting and then slowly dial back down to the desired setting. This will avoid the so-called mechanical backlash and ensure greater accuracy. Then talking about rhythm and speed, which is a tip we want to give you as well. If you see a picture which looks like on the right side that you have air trapped inside your tip. Please dispense the sample and immerse it once again. This might have happened because your aspiration was too fast. So really think of it only a very, very small amount and rhythm and speed is the key to the perfect sample aspiration. Then when it comes to repeatability. As shown several times now, the arm of the instrument compresses the sample meaning when the arm is lifted and lowered again, a layer of air stays between the sample and the upper platform, so always use a new sample job for every repeated measurement because if you once open and close the arm, even if you have managed to perform or to pipette the perfect sample drop the first time after once having opened and closed the arm, you sample job will be destroyed. So take it off and really for each and every measurement use a new sample drop. Last but not least, we want to give you the tip of not overfilling the micro volume platform and never pipette more than 10 microliters on the -- of the solution onto the measuring platform. Excuse me, excess liquid can lead to corrosion of the micro volume arm and over time can reduce the measurement accuracy. So please ensure that you not flood the whole sample compartment as you would not do with your micro volume instrument and with your macro volume instrument as well. Okay, so much about tips and tricks. So let's sum together what we have been looking at. And what we wanted to give you are 4 take-home messages. First would be to measure DNA or RNA concentration, accuracy is essential since sample loss can be critical. So this is why micro volume spectroscopy is so attractive for these kind of applications. Second is the good pipetting practice and cleaning routines need to be followed because it can lead to cross contamination, and it can lead to wrong results. Third would be the sample droplets as well as the sample size need to be strictly observed. You would never ever put a cuvette with a fingerprint into your spectrophotometer and it's the same with the sample droplet. So this is where the accuracy of your measurement is decided upon. And last but not least, well serviced micro volume measurements combined with a laboratory software add quality, efficiency, safety and security to your spectroscopic analysis. As an example, you might have been following steps 1 to 3, but then somehow your data gets mixed up, is not transferred well, is not saved well and then all your effort was useless. Okay then ending with some additional information to give you an overview about the available spectrophotometers from Mettler-Toledo and to give you insight in our expert library. Just that you have seen the brothers and sisters of our micro volume instrument, the UV5Nano, you can see the UV5Bio and the UV5 and UV7. These are our macro volume instruments. As you can see, the UV5Nano is a hybrid instrument. So you have both -- you have both options, you can perform micro and macro volume measurements on that platform. And the other 3 pure macro volume spectrophotometers and they're very, very tiny, very, very small and have the open sample compartment. So if you ever see such a light box in a lab, you can be sure that's one of our Mettler Toledo spectrophotometers which leads us already to the end. At this point, I would like to thank you for joining the webinar. I have to ask Claudia if there are any questions in the chat which have not been answered.

No, I have everything answered so far. So far [indiscernible], ask more questions, so I have something to do.

So please here is the opportunity for you now to raise some additional questions. In the meantime, I'll just continue talking about our application library where you can find guides and handbooks and posters and useful checklist and all the things I have been putting on a QR code on the slides. Can also find literature and application notes and white papers and webinars there. And of course, our user magazine, usercoms, you can find also tips and hints. We publicate this annually. So this year should be in 2023, the edition, I guess, it's 28. So we're doing this for quite some time now. So you have a whole database of technical journals available here. And all of this can be found on mt.com. So I know that within these live events, we might have a delay about 30 seconds to 1 minute. So by now, you should have heard our question about asking further questions. If this is not the case, we'll just end the webinar now, but we will stay in the chat for about 5 to 10 minutes. So if you come up with any questions, please feel free to still put them into the chat or as you have learned in the beginning of the presentation and reach out to your local Mettler-Toledo office, there are plenty of them or you can drop us a message or you can reach Claudia and me via LinkedIn. Okay. Then again, thank you for joining, and have a good day or good evening ahead.