The recent Pittcon conference, held from March 7-11, 2026, in San Antonio, TX, is a popular event for companies that develop new equipment, instruments, and software for the lab community to highlight new products. During the conference, we sought out interesting new products that could make significant differences in solving pain points or improving productivity in the lab. The best of these innovations are described below.
Software
LabVantage Cortex
LabVantage has introduced a new AI-driven lab informatics platform called LabVantage® CORTEX. It is designed to be a lab-centric intelligence tool that provides an operating system for AI agents to orchestrate the decisions, workflows, and analyses in the lab. The agentic AI agents can make decisions to improve the outcomes of the lab’s work without constant human intervention. The goal is to improve data quality and lab productivity.
Lab equipment
Plas-Labs custom enclosures
Plas-Labs discussed the importance of customized enclosures to increase productivity and safety in the lab. These enclosures can be designed to house unique or individualized equipment. Custom work can involve design engineering, custom drawings, new product development, and complete documentation. A wide range of materials are available, including PETG, PVC, Acrylic, and stainless steel.
Parker H2C High-Purity Hydrogen Generator
Parker introduced a new hydrogen gas generator that can deliver 99.99999+ percent purity at flow rates up to 1.3l/min for applications like gas chromatography. The new performance is driven by a redesigned proton exchange membrane. To make operation easier, it also has a user-friendly front touchscreen and can be stacked to minimize the amount of bench space required.
Memmert CO2 Incubator ICO
The new CO2 incubator delivers the same capacity in a smaller footprint with intuitive operation from a front touchscreen. It also delivers improved safety from integrated temperature monitors, a mechanical temperature limiter, and an integrated auto-diagnostic system.
Chromatography and mass spectrometry
EN-SAN Labrador handheld GC
The new Labrador GC-PID is a fully field-portable gas chromatograph (GC) with photoionization detection. It uses air as the carrier gas and has two scrubbers that remove moisture and volatile organic compounds to ensure high-quality results. The four-hour battery life enables a full day in the field with only two batteries. It also has the option of an extraction unit that enables the analysis of volatile compounds from soil, water, or air. It has the sensitivity, up to parts per billion, to enable rapid decisions in the field and away from the lab.
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Restek RMX GC Columns
The new GC columns from Restek increase sensitivity, linearity, and recovery for more compounds than other column options. These improvements are driven by a highly effective deactivation layer that reduces unwanted surface interactions, which improves peak shape for a wide range of molecules. Increased sensitivity reaches picogram levels. These columns also deliver extended method and column lifetimes.
Restek PFAS reference standards
Restek has introduced a new series of PFAS standards that they synthesize themselves. The new standards represent 22 different PFAS materials that are important to understand the extent of PFAS contamination.
Shimadzu LCMS 8065XE
Shimadzu introduced a new triple quadrupole mass spectrometer (MS) designed specifically for the sensitivity required in the modern environmental lab responsible for analyzing PFAS. It uses a newly designed electrospray ionization source, ion pusher, and collision cell to attain 1 ppt sensitivity for PFAS in drinking water.
Shimadzu I-series LC-2070/LC-2080
This new instrument is the fourth-generation HPLC from Shimadzu. It contains smart software to enable higher and more predictable performance. It also delivers better quality data with less carryover and better baselines. To help lab sustainability, it is built using 73 percent recycled plastics.
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Shimadzu Nexera
This new ion chromatograph (IC) is a high-performance instrument aimed at water analysis. It features both an anion and cation suppressor and can include an additional UV detector for greater sensitivity. The software is newly designed specifically for IC experiments. The instrument has a smaller footprint to optimize the use of bench space in the lab.
Materials analysis
Waters TA Ares G3
Waters TA’s new rheometer is designed to enable labs to formulate products quickly. It features new electronics that enable 10x faster data acquisition, which reduces standard testing times by up to 80 percent. The instrument also fully integrates a fast frequency Chirps solution that enables fast frequency sweeps, contributing to the faster analysis times.
Shimadzu ALTRACE
This new energy dispersive XRF instrument contains a new optical system, high-speed signal processing technology, and a new, higher voltage, 65kV, X-ray source. These improvements drive sensitivity to less than one ppm for most elements. The instrument can analyze trace elements in solids, liquids, or powders with minimal sample preparation.
Shimadzu CF3-C8030
Shimadzu has introduced the first centrifugal field flow fractionation particle size analyzer. It generates 15,900 g of centrifugal force to separate nanomaterials by mass. This approach enables a very wide range of particles, from less than 5 nm to greater than 9,000 nm, to be separated and analyzed.
Bettersize Bettersizer 2600 Plus
This particle size analyzer combines laser diffraction and dual camera dynamic imaging to determine size and shape information of particles ranging in size from 20 nm to 3,500 microns. It improves lab productivity with a 60-sample autosampler and can support both wet and dry dispersion units.
Rigaku NEX QCII
This new benchtop energy dispersive XRF is designed specifically to be rugged enough for plant floors, manufacturing lines, QC labs, and even field use. It is fast and simple to use and requires minimal operator training. The new instrument has a compact footprint and includes a built-in printer, so no computer is required for operation.
Sample preparation
Design Scientific PhasePrep pH+
The PhasePrep pH+ is an automated solution to prepare LC mobile phases and analytical solutions. It combines an 8,200 g balance with magnetic stirring, 0.02 percent accuracy, and integrated pH control. It is an ideal solution to speed up routine sample preparation and to dispense solutions.
Carver AutoPellet RP
This benchtop lab press comes in two different sizes—25- and 40-ton capacity. It is engineered with a smaller footprint, an enhanced touchscreen, and is fully automated and programmable, including an automatic decompress feature. Up to 20 different recipes can be stored for automated results.
Biotage PrepXpert-8
The PrepXpert-8 is a fully automated sample preparation system. It can run up to eight samples simultaneously and can operate in split mode (up to four each) that run different methods. The system can prepare samples in volumes from 10 to 1500 ml, has automated extractors for water and SPE, and is fully compliant for PFAS analyses with automated bottle rinsing. The unit can quickly change between PFAS and SVOC analyses by changing the liquid delivery lines.
