Chromatography Forum

Hello all,

THIS (see pic below) happened when our MSD was being shipped back from a repair facility ....it must've not remained upright because now there's a lot of diff pump oil inside the vacuum manifold and analyzer. Does anyone have experience cleaning a mess like this, i.e. which solvents to use/not use, or other feedback?

Thanks very much,
Pat

I have used DCM to clean oil residues out of a 5971 or 72 - this was years ago. It took several days to get the DCM background out of the instrument. If I recall correctly, there was someone in the lab who caused the accident resulting in the instrument pulling oil in from the rough pump.

On this instrument, contact the repair facility. In shipping equipment like this, the repair facility should have shipped this with instructions to the shipper to keep the instrument upright and with indicators on the packaging that would show if the package was tipped in shipment. The condition of the tilt indicators would be noted upon reciept from the shipper and indication of tipping would be noted as damage upon recipt. This would leave liability on the shipper to cover any damages resulting from not handling the instruments properly. (Just writing "This side up" on the box and passing it off to a parcel service is not sufficient.)

If the repair facility failed to ship the instrument in such a way that the shiper was required to handle the isntrument correctly or face beign responsible for the consequences, then the repair facility should be helping you out with this cleanup.

We got the very first 5971A in our state. HP was very careful to have the MSD in a wooden crate (became my dog's dogouse for a few years) strapped to a pallet, with tip indicators all over it.

So: good luck.

I've cleaned a lot of these when backstreaming occured due to power outages or a mechanical pump failing. This is the worst I've seen! The only thing that cuts the oil is DCM. Everything has to be rinsed and the ceramics will have to be replaced. It will take quite a while to get rid of the DCM background. I agree with the other poster. Contact the repair facility...they really should take care of this for you.