You need an operator regardless. People with training sufficient to operate an HPLC go for closer to $50k-$60k here, unless you need them to do method development etc. Most vendors worth their salt can set you up with basic info and methods for a moderate fee.
HPLCs and their ilk are all available on service contracts. I’m pretty sure one company we had quote us on a used HPLC had a $1500-2000/mo parts+service contract offer to go with it if we wanted.
The person who runs our HPLC has zero scientific training, but just an eye for detail, and she picked it up in about a week. “Two simple dilutions” sounds a lot like our sample prep too.
A wook could probably run our system in a week and get damn good results out of it, because we’ve designed it to be tolerant to operator variance and error.
Is doing analytics right easy? No. Many people fail at it. More don’t understand the value of it.
You’re looking for a customer who wants a tool that is only really acceptable for optimizing distillate production? And has $7500/mo to do it with? Sorry, but I didn’t realize it’s still 2018.
The SRI GC method I posted here some time ago has a 7 minute run time. That’s a ~$12k machine, and could be run by someone with fuckall skills and training if what you need is a “about how many cannabioids do I have here” answer, which it seems is what your system does.
EDIT: Anybody who has $7500/mo and thinks this is a good idea, DM me and I’ll get you set up with an HPLC and wook-proof sample prep method for less than that. [actually, don’t. I hate consulting. Buy this thing instead.]