Sauron - 31-12-2006 at 21:17
Last year I bought a polarimeter (Abbe type) from the Chinese manufacturer in Shanghai. I have been very pleased with its precision and sturdiness.
Including courier shipping it cost me about $500.
Same company makes and sells Abbe refractometers, digital refractometers, melting point apparatus and some more specialized instruments pertinent to
thermodynamics that might be of interest.
I have discovered that they are the OEMs for a number of European instrument companies, the identical instruments are resold in Europe with the German
or Belgian or Austrian name on them for about 3X-4X the money.
The polarimeter obviously is for determination of optical rotation of chiral compounds.
Refractometer for refractive index of liquids
Their digital refractometer is OEM for the famus Swiss one but for 1/5 the $$
The melting point apparatus can do anything a Buchi can do: microprocessor control, ramping, heating block, magnifier for reading thermometer, digitl
option, etc. Some models allow three samples to be melted at once and unattended operation with automatic determination of mp is available.
I use these for QA/QC of chemicals I also purchase from China, as well as for characterizing products.
The polarimeter has a sodium monochromatic lamp, and both 100 and 200 mm sample tubes. Reads to +/- 180 degrees with verniers capable of resolution to
0.05 degree. I tested it with a sucrose solution and got an accurate reading. Calibration standards are available.
They also make digital polarimeters for higher throughput, but the old fashioned sort is good enough for my purposes.
There's a Canadian reseller for the polarimeter.
Spares are available for lamps and sample tubes.
[Edited on 1-1-2007 by Sauron]
Maya - 1-1-2007 at 12:07
you are such a tease 
Sauron - 1-1-2007 at 15:19
Huh?
With some effort I can dig up photos, URLs, scan the manual for the polarimeter, and post it.
If anyone is interested. I am not a reseller of this stuff nor am I a shill for the factory. I am just pointing out that my experience with the
Chinese instruments has been favorable. You can buy them new for less than you can find a used, 50 year old Bausch & Lomb refractometer for, used.
(I know. I looked at those too.)
The Swiss digital refractometer is Reichert which is part of the Leitz/Leica optics conglomerate. However they merely buy the instrument from Shanghai
and stick their name on it and jack it up from $1200 to $7000. Now if you needed a digital refractometer which would you buy?
[Edited on 2-1-2007 by Sauron]
Sauron - 1-1-2007 at 16:52
Photo of Polarimeter. This photo is from a European website but the exact instrument is what I bought from the Shanghai based factory.
It is not a knockoff. Several European companies buy from same factory in China and put their private labels on the polarimeter and mark them up
obscenely.
The Chinese model designation for this instrument is WXG4
If you Google that you will fine Chinese factories, Canadian reseller, etc etc. Generally the Chinese factires are not particularly interested in
selling one-off, they want to sell by container load. But, I know a Chinese amino acid supplier who will resell single instruments and ship via DHL,
FedX etc.
That's how I got mine.
[Edited on 2-1-2007 by Sauron]
Sauron - 1-1-2007 at 17:10
Here's the digital refractometer from one of the Chinese sites. Note that the manual Abbe type models are also available and less than half the price
of the digital instrument.
This one is model WYA-1S
This one is resold under the label of a famous Swiss optical company for $7000.
[Edited on 2-1-2007 by Sauron]
Sauron - 1-1-2007 at 23:26
Here's the URL for the page of a Canadian reseller of the Chinese polarimeter. I am not entirely sure of their price but it should be c.$500.
http://www.labequip.com/itemcatalog/stkno/20867/WXG-4/DISK-P...
[Edited on 2-1-2007 by Sauron]
JohnWW - 5-1-2007 at 16:49
Can you tell us (at least privately) the name of that Chinese instrument manufacturer in Shanghai who sells one-off instruments to foreigners, please?
Does one have to be able to read and write Chinese in order to deal with them?
Sauron - 5-1-2007 at 17:10
It's a biochem company that sells me amino acids and peptide reagents. They are connected to one of the domestic distributors for the factory and are
thus able to get me instruments one-off. They only mark them up $50 each to cover their admin. I will dig up their name and email address for you, and
give you the name of the guy we deal with there, his first name is Jason. He is perfectly fluent in English, so no you will not need any Chinese
language skills.
Sauron - 6-1-2007 at 02:53
Anyone interested in these instruments pls PM me and I will provide you with contact details and provide an introduction to my middleman in Shanghai.
He is at HS Biochem (HuaSheng Biochem.) A good supplier of amino acids and reagents for peptide synthesis, some of which have applications in other
synthetic fields.