The Cirrus 3 features a number of advancements in design that aid stability and reproducibility of results. The vacuum chamber (with quadrupole analyzer) and inlet interface assembly is housed within a precision engineered stainless steel oven, providing low heat sink characteristics. This offers high temperature uniformity and eliminates potential cold spots that could otherwise cause undesirable sample condensation and variance in analyses. The oven design enables user-defined temperature control of the oven and capillary, allowing for finer analytical control.

The quadrupole analyzer itself is contained within a stainless steel vacuum chamber which is pumped by a high compression turbo molecular/diaphragm pump combination. The vacuum system is backed by an internal 4-stage diaphragm pump to maintain the integrity of the compact design. The entire Cirrus 3 vacuum chamber can also be baked to reduce residual gas background species and to minimize any memory effects.

An essential feature of any gas analyzer is the ability to not contaminate or alter the gas sample in any way. The Cirrus 3 inlet assembly incorporates either fused silica or stainless steel capillaries that can be heated to a stable user-defined temperature. The inlet assembly allows for easy replacement of capillaries, while the optimized insulation maximizes stability and reduces heat radiation.

The low volume and surface area of the assembly serves to maximize response speed while minimizing memory effects. Cirrus 3 systems can also be configured with inlets for multi-stream sampling, stainless steel capillaries for resistance to fluorine-based compounds, and a pressure controller inlet (incorporating a gas independent capacitance manometer) to allow sampling from sources that vary from the nominal 1 bar inlet requirement. The Cirrus 3 vacuum system utilizes a high compression turbo molecular pump, so light gases such as hydrogen and helium can be sampled with no additional expensive pumping requirements.

The Cirrus 3 internal oven has a removable cover allowing easy access to the inlet interface, vacuum chamber, and analyzer ion source. This is particularly helpful for routine maintenance, such as filament and capillary replacement. A hot cathode (ion) gauge is incorporated for independent vacuum pressure measurement and to provide an interlock signal for protection of the mass spectrometer. A temperature sensor also ensures that the electron multiplier detector cannot be switched on at high temperatures, preserving its life. The Cirrus 3 is designed with a lubricant-free pumping system. No elastomer seals are used in the sample inlet system or in the high vacuum region of the system.

Cirrus 3 is operated using proven Process Eye Professional software, a recipe-driven platform that communicates with the system over a TCP/IP network. Process Eye Professional is designed for use with the latest Microsoft® operating systems including 32 bit or 64 bit Windows® 7 and 10. Features and Benefits include:

• Data presented in units relevant to the application
• Fully automated operation and calibration
• New workflow ''Recipes'' for quantitative applications
• User-configurable alarms and warnings
• Can be configured to track data from other process sensors (temperature, pressure, flow, etc.)