Agilent ion source cleaning (ceramics)

[adsfo]

Is there a protocol for cleaning ceramic insulators? I read somewhere that it's possible to clean them with sand paper followed by sonicating in methanol and baking at 700C for 2 hours. Older ceramic parts (e.g. MSD 5970) are no longer available for replacement.

[R13]

Do not know about MSD 5970, but for all Agilent instruments from 5971 there is strict "NO cleaning of ceramic parts" policy. And manuals specifically warn against placing insulators into a solvent of any kind. Service person explained that once insulating ceramics gets into solvent it will retain it even after drying and will leak traces of that solvent "forewer" ....

[Bigbear]

the ceramics in the 5970 and 88 and 89's can be heat cleaned in a muffle furnace or flamed with a torch. I have no experience with the 71's and 2's. You can not clean the 5973 or 5's, just replace them.

[koba]

5971's and 5972's insulator is pretty similar (if not the same) the ones on 5973 or 5975. You can just replace them

[mckrause]

The '70 ceramics are hard to find. You can flame them to clean them - string them on a wire and then use an air/butane torch to heat them to glowing. Let them cool. Works relatively well.

You normally don't have to clean them - they're pretty good insulators. If you're having trouble with voltage leaks I'd suspect other issues before I'd consider leaking ceramics.

[cleh]

I agree, never use solvents on ceramic insulators. I like flaming them with a torch. If you have a lot of them or some that are pretty dirty (like the filament block) it's worth soaking them in aqua regia. Follow that up with soaking them in DI and then baking them in an oven at 300C for a few hours. I also have access to ceramics for the 5970 and a lot of older instruments. Good luck.

[MSCHemist]

Agilent says you can use a q-tip with some methanol on it but if that does not do the job they should be replaced.

edit that is for 5975 insulators I am not sure about older ones?