The first prototype of a portable, lightweight compact air sampler came to light in 2002 after persistent requests from customers for a new instrument able to sample airborne pollutants in the environment and from stack flows, which could outperform the usual standard samplers. These were heavy, difficult-to-carry instruments and had also the considerable problem of being always and anywhere linked to the presence of a power supply connection.
The new device should provide a limitless series of new features and improvements, such as small volume and light weight, a reliable performance and – why not? – the possibility of being battery operated.

It must be said that Analitica Strumenti had already acquired an instrument with rather similar characteristics two years before, which was battery and direct current supplied. The only problem was represented by excessive volume and weight, the latter being mainly due to the battery pack, which was compact but really heavy and housed inside the sampler body. After many tests, it was finally decided to recover the design of a past model which had a similar structure. This was suitably and ingeniously transformed, its aspect and volume improved, and was revived with a colour that would soon make it famous. An integrated battery pack was also added to the unit, allowing its use in locations not easily connectable to a power supply and making it easy transportable.

March 2003, TauExpo Milan: official presentation of the first two operative prototypes, one in Basic version and the other supported by a Plus electronic card which provided additional information to the basic sampling data. Up to then, competitors hadn’t yet had a similar idea or intuition, that is to say, it hadn’t been yet understood that that was the new way to follow if one wanted to propose something really innovative. AirCube was the first portable sampler provided with a built-in volumetric counter, integrated battery pack and double power supply. Until this time, almost all our competitors have followed the way of the integrated battery pack without succeeding, however, to improve AirCube features. All other samplers need unpractical and unsafe external power supplies to operate in connection to the mains.

Four models, each one specific for different applications, each one a winner in its own sector:

• Basic: simple to use, manual flow adjustment and volumetric compensation, temperature detection at the counter by digital thermometer. 23 litres/min maximum flow rate.
• Gas: similar to the Basic version but provided with a pump with a narrower range and a better accuracy at low flow rates. Designed for channel-flow gas sampling according to the Legislative Ordinance August 2000.
• Plus: similar to the basic version, but with extended functionalities thanks to the Plus electronic card supplying several additional sampling data, such as temperature detection, atmospheric pressure, instant flow reading, programming and storing of sampling data, normalization of sampled volumes.
• Com: the first sampler with electronic compensation of charge losses, the first (and so far the only one) to make use of a low pressure, double head vacuum pump able to reach intake flows in the range of 26 litres/min.

Over time, new types of sampling accessories have been developed, such as electrovalve groups for sequential samplings, flow meters for isokinetic samplings in compliance with ISO 9096 regulations. More than six hundred samplers have been patented, including a small series in Basic version and an OEM Plus version with customized colours.

June 2007: a new AirCube version comes to light which has got smaller volume, lighter weight and unmatched performance. It is the new portable sampler AirCube Com2. Maximum flow with 47mm PTFE/FV 30 lit/min (29,88) filter membrane, more than 6 Hrs endurance at medium-high flow rates, available in standard and isokinetic version (AirCube Com-Iso), also featuring the latest electronic card according to the new RoHs directives and other innovative solutions.

AirCube is all this, this is the story of how a simple intuition has led to a revolution in the way of performing samplings. No similarities, no comparisons. Thus far, the portable sampler AirCube has got no equals among its main competitors as to models and performance, and the web site www.aircube.it is the first demonstration and evidence of this idea.