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Issues Lens insulator 5977A Agilent MS after cleaning

Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2018 7:43 am
by UNDUEKA
Hello everyone,

we have a 5977A MS from Agilent in our lab.

I cleaned the ion source for the first time. When I wanted to reassemble it I notived that the lens insulator has two really small cracks at the thinner part.

Now, when I try to allign the entrance lens and the ion focus lens to touch each other the insluator gets too big of a diameter and does not fit in the ion source body. However, if the lenses have a gap between each other they do fit into the body perfectly.
I do not remember or know if the lenses are supposed to touch each other or if there is supposed to be this gap and I am just paranoid.
also does someone know if the cracks in the insulator can become an issue?

Thanks a lot!

Katharina

Re: Issues Lens insulator 5977A Agilent MS after cleaning

Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2018 7:38 pm
by James_Ball
No, the Entrance and Ion Focus lens do not touch each other. If you look inside the insulator you will see notches that hold the lenses and separate them by a few mm.

I think it was better when the insulators were two pieces instead of one, much easier to put them together, but that was changed over a decade ago.

Re: Issues Lens insulator 5977A Agilent MS after cleaning

Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2018 8:14 pm
by cjm
Correct they must be separated in the insulator. I just got finished putting one together. I find it easiest to rest the entrance lens in the aluminum puck given to us with our kit. then ion focus on top, line up connectors, slip on insulator, position each into the notches, etc...

Cracks should be no issue. Even if it fell into two pieces I bet you'd be fine, as long as they slide into body with no resistance.

Re: Issues Lens insulator 5977A Agilent MS after cleaning

Posted: Wed Dec 05, 2018 9:26 pm
by James_Ball
cjm wrote:
Correct they must be separated in the insulator. I just got finished putting one together. I find it easiest to rest the entrance lens in the aluminum puck given to us with our kit. then ion focus on top, line up connectors, slip on insulator, position each into the notches, etc...

Cracks should be no issue. Even if it fell into two pieces I bet you'd be fine, as long as they slide into body with no resistance.


As long as when they separate it is not so that the set screw would pass through the insulator and touch the ion focus lens. I think that is why they went to the one piece design, some people tightened them too much and the split was right where the set screw was and they would ground out.

Re: Issues Lens insulator 5977A Agilent MS after cleaning

Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2018 6:40 am
by UNDUEKA
Hey!

Thanks a lot for the helpful replies!
Agilent told me the cracks in the insulator will become an issue and produce voltage in the whole ion source body etc and we should get a replacement which (of course) is 450 €..

Thanks!

Greetings,

Katharina

Re: Issues Lens insulator 5977A Agilent MS after cleaning

Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2018 6:58 pm
by Bigbear
Depending on your application, the lens insulators should be swapped out every once in a while. I have a 5973 running 524 that I change every 2 years, and 1 year change for my EPA 525 method.