The PC Frontend hardware (Fig. 2, red part) is integrated in a small measurement box, in the electrodialysis table panel or in the basic electrodialysis system to operate the electrodialysis system (black part). Each PC Frontend is specifically customized according to the individual requirements and existing measurement devices.

Functions of the PC Frontend app

Main features of the PC Frontend app:

• Operation of pumps, power supplies and valves.
• Visualization of measured values: Current, voltage, conductivity, temperature, flow, pressure and pH (provided by standard and optional sensors).
• Visualization of calculated values (charge, concentration).
• Display of the process values in dependence of time or charge.

Features during operation:

• Storage of freely definable events with a time stamp.
• Input dialog to store and display experimental values (e.g. volume).
• Semi-automatic batch processing with user-defined end points (conductivity, pH).
• Automatic stabilization of parameters (pH, conductivity) by operation of a dosing pump.
• Calibration of sensors (e.g. pH probes), guided by calibration menus.

Reporting and evaluation:

• Export of generated graphs as individual graphic files (.png format).
• Storage of measured parameters in a log-file (.csv/.txt format).
• Storage of the logged events, changed calibration factors and automatically generated events in a separate event-log-file for documentation and further analysis.
• Automatic generation of a report of the experiment or process run (.rtf and .pdf format).
• The log-file can be imported into the PC Frontend app any time after termination for further evaluation, generation of graphs, or for continuation of the experiment.