Guard column leaking packing material

[Ohia]

I'm running some standard semi-preparative reversed phase HPLC and am having lots of trouble with my guard columns.

I'm using a Shimazu semi-prepartive guard cartridge holder, containing a Sunrise C-18 cartridge, attached to a 250 x 10 mm C-18 column. If the pressure gets too high, the cartridge becomes deformed and the C-18 packing material starts leaking out, blocking the stainless steel tubing and head of the column proper. This causes another pressure spike, causing more leaking, etc. Even relatively low pressures (~150 bar) will cause this leakage.

I have replaced the leaking cartridge, only for the same problem to occur again with the new guard cartridge. I have one remaining but am reluctant to try it until I know what the problem is.

Has anyone else observed similar problems? Should guard cartridges be able to handle high pressures (300+ bar)? Is it possible I might have got a faulty batch? Any help would be most appreciated.

[Gerhard Kratz]

Since the manufacturer of the Sunrise C18 column is not producing such a guard column, it is highly possible that the guard cartridge holder and the guard column cartridge are from different sources and the design does not fit together. I guess it is a problem of the connector between the guard cartridge holder and the semi preparative column. Can you please give us more information about the packer of the guard column? Anyhow, a 10mmID semi preparative guard column should be stable up to 400bar. Your semi preparative Sunrise C18 column is packed with 5µm particles, and length 250mm. What is your flow rate? 300 bar would be extremely high back pressure for such a column dimension.