Specac^® Benchmark baseplate

Specac Benchmark baseplates are adapter baseplates used to install Specac accessories such as ATR units into the spectrometer sample compartment. The accessory locates onto the top of the Benchmark baseplate and is held secure by a single thumbscrew fixing, usually into a location pillar at the front of the baseplate.

There are three further support and location pillars arranged in a triangular configuration on the plate to match the height of the thumbscrew location pillar, such that the accessory is placed level to be presented at the correct beam height and spatial position in the spectrometer sample compartment. It is this arrangement of pillars (or location holes and pins for low beam height spectrometer systems) on a support plate that denotes a Benchmark baseplate configuration.

The metal plate that carries the pillars or location holes and pins is a particular shape and unique to a specific spectrometer sample compartment. It is this metal plate that is directly attached to the floor of a spectrometer. The Benchmark baseplate may be suitable for a number of spectrometer models from the same manufacturer, and when placed into the spectrometer, will allow any Benchmark baseplate compatible accessory to be correctly mounted for operation.

The accessories can be changed over for operation simply by undoing the thumbscrew connection on the accessory itself. The Benchmark baseplate part does not need to be removed from the spectrometer sample compartment. An advantage is that once an accessory has been finely aligned for operation in a particular spectrometer on the Benchmark baseplate, as long as the optical settings on the accessory are not altered, it can be removed from the spectrometer as many times as required and is ready for use the next time it is installed.

Specac is a registered trademark of Specac Ltd.