Mastersizer 3000 by Malvern Panalytical

"Easy to use."

"Thank you Malvern for the great customer service. Especially after sales service from Senior Product manager Ms Doris Lim. Very professional and friendly. Provided us with great advice and technical notes/white papers relevant to our field. In addition, service scheduling and customer service care was always prompt and efficient. Instrument was easy to use and easy to maintain with proper care and SOP. Even to set up your own experiments and SOP was easy. Rapid and accurate measurements, easy to use module and system."

"MS3000 is user friendly but you need to understand the working mechanism of the machine to create your own SOP. It is easy to maintain though it requires some manual cleaning after it has been used after some time. Preventive Maintenance done once every 6 months is a good time frame to ensure that the machine is in good working condition. The results are sometimes not reproducible but it could be due to the nature of the samples being tested."

"Good value for money."

"Its time saving for us, all we need is regular training to be able to explore all the available features of the instrument."

"It is very effective and easy to use for particle size distribution tests. We can get results quickly."

"The product is practically indispensable in the analysis of APIs. Accurate and reliable results. Results obtained are helpful for scientist for quick decision making during product development. User friendly instrument, robust and with higher sensitivity, low amount of sample is required. It is reliable, easy to use, and gives us the right results every time. We bought both the dry and wet feeder accessories for Mastersizer 2000 and Mastersizer 3000. At present we are transferring methods from Mastersizer 2000 to the Mastersizer 3000. Both of them are easy to use. I found these products to be good value for money!"

"Mastersizer 3000 can use dry and wet samples. It is effective for measuring soil particle size distribution by the dry method."

"Mastersizer 3000 is a very user-friendly instrument. First level user maintenance is easy and it rarely breaks down. Value for money in determining grinding efficiency and product optimization. Can be operated by a first time user following simple guidelines."

"The illustrated and indexed user manual is great. The online training modules with trouble shooting and data graph examples are superb. I was able to write an SOP with detailed scope and references from these two resources. I went from being a complete novice, to being able to describe the theory behind the choices of how we set up our instrument's SOP. Within a month, a graduate student had gone on to running 500 samples with no problems whatsoever. No more sending samples to another lab with competitive time slots. No more lengthy explanations of how things could be "problematic". The Mastersizer 3000 software's customizable UI has caused students to take an interest in how much information they can see during a lab run...causing them to think critically about their data. Before it was just another CSV file to run statistical analysis on. The instrument has a small footprint compared to it's predecessor the MS2000. Actually, it is compact compared to a lot of instruments that have fluids flowing in and out of them! The surface is robust; I am not afraid of cables or cords getting caught on each other."

"User friendly instrument with higher sensitivity, low amount of sample is required."

"Product is good, some optimization needed."

"Consistency, reliability, ease of use. Consistency of measurement accuracy allows us to verify the process output without concern of measurement error. Former equipment was susceptible to material buildup that would be a variable with consistent reliable results. Reliable operation and performance, even in the manufacturing environment. This is also facilitated by the ease of cleanup between sample runs. Ease of use allows multiple manufacturing line personnel to conduct the required testing and not be a variable with the overall production quality."

"Our lab (Dalhousie University) has used a Malvern particle sizer since the mid 1980's. We purchased the MS3000 in 2013 and it has been operating flawlessly since. It has always been extremely reliable, easy to use, and gives us the right results every time. We bought both the dry and wet feeder accessories; a huge time saver when switching between water soluble samples and inert materials. This machine has paid for itself many times over."

"We use the Mastersizer 3000 for various raw material testing. All dispersant units are used, Aero S, Hydro EV, Hydro MV, Manual volume unit. At present we are transferring methods from the Mastersizer S and Mastersizer 2000 to the Mastersizer 3000. Equipment is easy to use. What I have found very useful is the knowledge center on the website which also includes the recorded webinars. trouble shooting aspects have been great, understanding the theory behind the practical work. We had to modify our cleaning steps to reduce the effects of thermal gradients."

"The product is very useful for analysis of APIs. Accurate and reliable results are helpful for scientist for quick decision making during product development. The product is very user friendly. The after sale service is commendable. I found this product to be good value for money."

"Fantastic machine which performs flawlessly providing repeatable results each time. Easy to install and setup with the online videos. It would have been nice to have on-site training, but the software is fairly self-explanatory and easy to use. We had great support over the phone when needed."

"Easy to use, easy to clean, refractive index library could contain more data."

"The ease of use compared to the older 2000 unit is incredible! Changes in the software make it much more user-friendly for technicians at an everyday-use level with the method wizard. The technicians have always been very helpful with advice for the development of new methods and how to optimize them depending on the carrier oil or the particle of interest. The 21 CFR 11 compliance package has also been an incredible help with the transition to data integrity requirements for many regulatory bodies."

"Great instrument and great customer care."

"The Mastersizer 3000 is very easy to use. This machine provides an excellent way to characterize and control the particle size of our products in development. The software is very complete and allows us to optimize the results to be as accurate as possible. Malvern Panalytical is very reactive to help us and provide a lot of services and a large amount of webinars all year long. The best."

"Best piece of equipment to use when a particle size distribution of a material is needed. It is fast at delivering reliable data. Cleaning is fast and the use of the program is easy."

"In a place as remote as Bhutan, Malvern Mastersizer has added much needed quality assurance in my area of work. Easy to operate and avail guidance from website, I am proud to operate one in my lab. I not only test in my lab for my company, I also help mining companies around my locality carry out test. They will soon be ordering their own one. Having Mastersizer has made me proud."

"MasterSizer 3000 is a very interesting product that has replaced the previous methodology for sediment analysis that we had in our research workflow. It's a robust instrument, that delivers trustworthy and consistent results. It has a particle analysis size spectrum bigger than we had before and the software that supports it is very robust and feature rich. The only thing that can be improved are the routines for cleaning after a sample analysis because, most of the time, under some setup circumstances, it takes more time to prepare the instrument for another sample that the time needed for each analysis. However this is a minor issue that can be easily solved."

"The Mastersizer is very effective at providing useful data in a short amount of time. It is easy to use and provides consistent, reliable results."

"I started using Mastersizer recently, after half a year of downtime. Calibration was easy, and analysis started immediately. Automatic cell cleaning system is perfect, repeatet analysis of the same samples showed very good reproducibility. Even new users find it easy to learn to work with Aero S model for dry samples analysis. Nonetheless wet analysis is preferred for us. The most imporatant thing is to keep the sample bath clean, expecially the glass and your Mastersizer 3000. This will make sure it works for a long time and correctly!"

"Upgrading form Mastersizer 2000 to Mastersizer 3000 was really easy, data is more accurate at 100 nm scale. Malvern stands as a top quality manufacturer in particle sizing, with a high level of expertise."

"The equipment is very easy to use and the results are well done, each analysis gives a lot of information about the sample. The reproducibility is also impressive, of course you have to prepare your sample when using a version that its not so automated, but the investment is worth the price."

"The instrument has worked well over the couple of years we have had it. The service engineers and technical engineers are knowledgeable and helpful. The only issue I would say is that I did not get any recommendations for questions asked regarding changing of dispersants."

"The equipment is easy to operate and presents a quick analysis. Over the years it has not presented any maintenance stop. The results are reproducible and accurate."

"Best product, Best Service, 21 CFR Compliant software, Accurate and precise results."

"The product is excellent, the feedback with the distributor is fantastic,"

"The instrument is easy to use and has given reproducible PSD results. The customer service support is great. Although a touch expensive compared to the other options out there, it is very reliable."

"Excellent reproducibility with high accuracy and easy to handle the instrument."

"The Mastersizer particle analyzer is a necesary instrument for every lab that requires easy and accurate results on particles. with only a little training you can achived precise results from every single reading."

"Great support for instrument repair. Helpful technical support and sales team providing detailed information on up and coming instrument models."

"The MS 3000 is a robust instrument for particle size analysis. We use the Hydro LV unit for sample dispersion. The software is straightforward to use and highly flexible. The sample window is easily accessible and easy to clean as a result. No significant down time due to maintenance or repair has been needed."

"The effectiveness of the product is great and the service is great too. We obtain reproducible results in each analysis and this has provided us with the confidence of knowing that the instrument we have is a high level instrument."

"We have used the Mastersizer for many types of samples e.g minerals, biomass or crystals. Compared to our previous equipment (from another company) results are more reliable. Easy to use and quick."

"We use this analyzer for development and routine release of our pharmaceutical products. New method development is very quick and easy. Obtained results are very accurate and the instrument has great reproducibility. The testing using this analyzer is very quick and the results are very reliable. I am very impressed with the instrument design, user friendly software and 21CFR compatibility."

"The Mastersizer 3000 is very simple to use and very quick. The previous instrument runs take about 10 minutes after preparation of the sample. With the Mastersizer prep and run time is half that. The customer service is very attentive, and quick to help resolve any issues. They will attempt to fix the problem over the phone with you, to save a service call charge, or the instrument being down until they get here. In the few times we have had them come out, they are here within 5 to 10 days."

"The Mastersizer 3000 instrument is considered to be the most advanced instrument in the field of particle size determination. Instrument provides rapid and accurate particle size distribution using both dry and wet dispersion in the range of 0.1 – 1000μm. Software is 21 CFR part 11 compliant. Has a laser as source with an array detector. Various dry dispersion and wet dispersion accessories are available to use as per application. Good accuracy, precision and reproducibility. The instrument is quite compact and decent looking. Only issue I can find is that result are sometimes not comparable with Mastersizer 2000."

"Instrumentation technically sounds. Staff highly knowledgeable. Robust equipment. Work horse for our needs."

"This unit is very straight forward in its uses, Good software and simple to operate for various parameters. Support for technical matters had good followup with clarity and resolved our issue quickly."

"Very useful and easy instrument to learn and develop a method on, with very user-friendly software that is easy to navigate. Results are somewhat reproducible, as long as the instrument has been thoroughly cleaned and degassed. The on site instrument technician (Razvan) is very knowledgeable, professional, and is a great resource for troubleshooting minor method issues. Tech support through the Malvern website is less helpful and defensive when an instrument issue is brought to their attention, they would rather blame the user and the user method development. After sending raw data to them (Tony), they do not respond with any advice."

"Since introducing the Mastersizer 3000 we have been able to mill to an appropriate particle size to help eliminate issues with the intermediate materials going into a final product, which before use was causing issues if the particle size was too big."

"Often used analysis-method. Easy to use and well accepted."

"It's fairly accurate but we have a problem with everything getting stained. I'm constantly scrubbing what I can to get the red color off so that it doesn't effect the next sample run. Also there's a few things I'd want changed in the results part of the testing. You can't edit anything until the the run SOP pop up box is closed. If I have to run the same sample multiple times but i need to edit something I've got to close everything out, edit everything then reopen everything to get back to what I was doing. IT'S A PAIN!! There's a couple of renaming issues too that can be annoying. But overall the results seem to be about what I'd expect so no complaints there."

"It help us improve the quality of our products. We are carrying out analysis of cement and raw meal."

"The Malvern Mastersizer 3000 fits perfectly in our application. The transition between Mastersizer 2000 and 3000 was very smooth. The instrument is compact compared to the older one and it's also more powerful. The software has more advanced features like determining refractive index, determining the true absorbance of the material etc. After sales service and technical support is excellent. Overall, we love the instrument and is good addition in the lab."

"The Malvern is very easy to use and is accurate. My only issue is with a particular part that seems to wear prematurely from regular use and requires replacement every 6-8 months. I have contacted them about making a stronger, more robust part but have heard no response to my feedback. I will keep buying replacement parts until they resolve the issue."

"Easy to use and precise."

"I like to use the Malvern particle sizer for my analysis in the analytical lab. It helps give all the results we are looking for. Getting information is quick and easy."

"The Mastersizer 3000 is intuitive. The reports are streamlined and make interpreting results quick and uniform."

"Very easy to use. We have them in R&D and manufacturing (3 plants)and they are consistent in the data they give."

"It will give you a good indication of the stability of the emulsions or suspension by measuring the diameter of droplets that are around 1 μm for emulsions. It will help you to have more realistic shelf life on your products. Very handy and useful and it is a bit pricey! But worth it."

"It is a very useful and essential instrument in any quality control laboratory. It always gives me consistent results and is quite robust."

"This is a really good instrument to measure the particle size with um scale, and it is pretty simple to use and get the data faster with more efficiency."

"The Mastersizer 3000 is straightforward to use and does a good job. One complaint is that the instrument does not automatically save data, so if you do not manually save and power goes off, you lose data permanently."

"Very impressed with capabilities of the software and the ability to easily analyze the accuracy of each measurement and also the ability to easily and full customize the reports. Very simple to change between the different cell types and also different SOP's. Do not typically get good results from the internal sonication typically get far better results using an external probe."

"for the most part our Mastersizer 3000 has been a good purchase for us and we use it every day. Our lab technicians do complain about a few features that were on our older Mastersizer 2000 and are not on the new unit. specifically, batch printing is not as easy with the new 3000 unit. Also the master report template is not as easy to modify and there is a lot of empty space on the report that we wish we could populate with useful data or notes."

"The Technology and product development are exceptional. The industry we compete in, is slightly behind the times so the equipment has more capacity than our current uses demand. (That is why I only gave a "fair" review on cost). Hopefully the future continues to see increases on customer requirements, seeking properties that would require a much more detailed evaluation of our supplies. Then the true value of the Mastresizer will be realized."

"The machine is easy to use... once you get the hang of how the data output can be leveraged to learn the quality of your sample. After sales support from Peter and Greg was awesome. We had some initial qualms from the set up but Greg and Peter took the effort to make a special stop to give a more detailed understanding of the tests and set ups that we were particularly interested in."

"I am using everyday for my testing! The Malvern support department also very helpful and quick response. Any time I requested spreadsheets for excel COA I got it! That’s great service provided by company!"

"The Mastersizer is reproducible and easy to use. Even less capable technicians are able to use it effectively. We have been able to improve are pigment grinds by using the data produced by the unit. IT is easy to keep clean and the software is user friendly."

"The mastersizer 3000 was a great purchase for our production lab. It gives accurate and precise results very quickly. The program is user friendly so anyone can be trained to use it. Malvern/ PANalytical setup and qualified our instrument in just a few hours, the instrument also arrived before the estimated delivery date so that was a bonus for us, since we were up and running before our target date. John Raia was the service engineer who setup our instrument and did our team's training session. He was very knowledgeable and was able to answer all of our questions, even with our larger than normal training group Thanks John and thank you Malvern for the great customer support!"

"We still believe that Malvern is at the forefront of this technology and the hardware of this new unit is outstanding. They have made it easier for us to convert from the various configurations that we purchased. This is especially important in the R&D environment where we use it. All of the hardware portions are seamless and well thought out. On the software side we feel more could be done to ensure we have not lost any capabilities that we had on our previous Mastersizer 2000. There seems to be areas in the software that were needless changed or where logical flexibility has been lost. Why not have an interface that emulates the old system to allow for easier method transfer and less user re-training especially since these can also be used for final lot testing in a QA environment. We also need more security to ensure created methods can only be modified by authorized users who truly understand what the inputs are. Since this is a general use instrument it concerns me that nearly every user has access to the SOPs and can inadvertently modify them. In addition to security we have had several incidents of the program glitching and then needing to be restarted. Perhaps this has to do with our network or computer but we feel it should be more robust."

"I have had occasion to also use a Horiba LA-950V2 laser diffraction instrument. I feel that the software Malvern offers was far superior in appearance and ease of use. The ergonomics of the dry dispersion system by Malvern are better for a typical bench install. The sonication of the HydroMV was proven to have a higher level of agglomerate dispersion ability."

"The Malvern Mastersizer 3000 is easy to use and efficient but we regulrarly have issues with the LV unit attached. We have experienced several days of downtime at various times since purchasing. The service department is always quick to respond and assist but it can be a bit frustrating to keep having issues repeatedly."

"Very useful for the size range used in food industry. Relatively easy to setup and operate for R&D. / research applications"

"The Mastersizer 3000 is a very precise instrument."

"Great instrument. More reliable. The instrument is easy to use. Gives more reliable results"

"Reproducible results- cleaning is sometimes tedious. Automated programs need improvement. We purchased a new instrument and there was about a year of debugging. Otherwise, very happy with this instrument. Would be happier if a visualization feature or module (microscopy -simplified version of FPIA instrument) was included to see large aggregates versus entrained air bubbles! That's a $10,000 upcharge I would pay for compared to another instrument as it would reduce the need to confirm results by manual microscopy. Great support from Joe Wolfgang."

"What an awesome machine. So easy to use. The reports are printed out beautifully. All you have to do is run your samples and perform the scans. The help desk and service team is so friendly and respond so quickly to your needs with almost next day service. I am very happy with my decision to purchase this Mastersizer 3000 ."

"Very good, friendly using software. Highly recommended"

"PROS: Easy to use Quick change windows CONS: Not a like for like switch from MS2000, still struggling to transfer SOPs Resolution of Hydrasight unit is poor Auto Quality check of test results is minimal and lacking capability"

"Local sales and service technicians are very knowledgeable on their products. Also readily accessible."

"We have had a few minor issues with the equipment. Malvern is always super helpful to assist on a remote basis to see if preliminary trouble shooting will help, before committing to a service visit."

"Workhorse for our particle size distribution measurement in vaccine development work. Very reliable instrument, but could improve on ease of use."

"Easy to use. you can have real time monitoring for your particle size. if something goes wrong they are always there to take care of your needs"

"The MS3000 software is super easy to use. The Malvern support always gets back to us right away. Great Particle Sizing system"

"Best value for any instrument in its class (laser diffraction) for powder particle size distribution. It is extremely easy to use. The automated SOPs allow for highly reproducible results for both wet and dry dispersion analysis. Switching between the wet and dry modules is a fast and simple process. It takes up very little bench space. The software is user friendly and free updates. Almost infinite customization of the reports. The software makes it so simple to create your own reports. My reports have impressed everyone I've given them to (you can even add pictures such as SEM). It is an amazing instrument to say the least."

"The build of the Mastersizer 3000 is robust and easy clean. Measurements are easy to make and the software is easy to negotiate. Feed back from other end users in the department has been extremely positive and the training they require to get started is minimal. Malvern also has an extremely good aftersales team they will help with technical problems and often make suggestions which they think may help. This is the third Mastersizer I have had in a timespan of around 35 years and the first one was still working after 20years of service."

"User-Friendly is one of the main attribute with this instruments. Technical and Quality staff used this instrument to determine that our dispersion are stable by the particle distribution analysis."

"The Good: Instrument is easy to learn and method development is easily transferred from 2000 to 3000 if sonication is not overly used. Software layout is nice and it is recommended that you have two monitors to get the best viewing. Manual mode is nice for full control of what you want to run and data is easy to pull up and review. The Bad: The earlier model of the 3000 I had at Amgen (~5-6 years ago) would not reduce the stir speed during wash cycle. The model I bought about 2 years ago at Gilead reduces it to 1000 rpm whenever you drain valve. I prefer not having to manually pump back up the stir speed every time I clean between samples. The Mastersizer 2000 also maintains stir speed during cleaning. The 3000 has a known software issue where you can not take a screen shot of the print preview report of more than 6 overlays without it cutting off the distribution names and summary table. You can try to export the overlay image via the software, but it too will still cut off longer file names making it difficult to make nice e-images to drop into a power point slide show. I have been told by the company that this is considered a known issue and a low risk because physical print outs do not show this behavior. Problem is, these days, we dont tend to deal with physical printouts."

"Malvern Mastersizer 3000 is an invaluable equipment for supporting drug development. It is essential measurement tool to provide rapid and accurate data for PSD which is crucial in dry powder inhaler development. I achieved high quality and reproducible results with many years practical experience. It is easy to use with many functions to help SOP development. After sale care and value for money are all excellent."

"Fairly simple to operate. Bit quirky having to maneuver between screens for reports."

"This is our third unit purchased and we are very please with both the reliability of the unit itself and service provided by Malvern Instruments. We are characterizing particles ranging in size from 15 micron up to 90 microns and the unit has provided use with the ability to review an infinite range of sizes giving us reliable quantitative results"