HPLC Maintenance [August 12, 2004]
Posted: Sun Aug 29, 2004 6:44 pm
By Chris on Thursday, August 12, 2004 - 11:57 am:
We are looking to bring HPLC maintenance in-house rather than paying extortionate service rates. We have identified the following critical parameters (change time in brackets):
Pump:
Change Piston and wash Seals (3 months)
Change Piston rod (6 months)
Autosampler:
Check needle (3 months)
Change Rotor (12 months)
Detector:
Change lamp as necessary
Clean flow cell (6 months)
Oven:
None required
We will complete calibration of the necessary part after the relevant task has been carried out. Has anyone got any comments on the above or additional tasks that must/should be performed.
Thanks
Chris
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By Anonymous on Thursday, August 12, 2004 - 12:11 pm:
We have 6 HPLCs here, all Agilent 1050s and 1100s. We don't use buffers that often, and we rinse right after those. We have piston seals lasting over a year, pisons themselves lasting several years or even more, and replace autosampler rotors about twice a year. Needles and seats are replaced when necessary, and we don't bother with flow cell. For the pharmaceutical units, the engineer does this and tests once per year, the others we do when unit needs it, usually longer than a year...
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By David Blais on Friday, August 13, 2004 - 04:39 am:
Chris,
Obviously it depends on what types of HPLCs you use, what types of mobile phases, etc. I would say, if you use buffers and acids minimally (or at least wash thoroughly after each run), you could get 6 months out of the pump seals and easily 12 months out of the piston rods. If the instruments are used often, I would bet the lamps need to be changed after 6 months.
Also, I would look to add some sort of calibration to the column thermostat (oven). Nothing complicated, but just something to check the accuracy at 2 or 3 points.
Good luck.
-David
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By Chris on Friday, August 13, 2004 - 06:03 am:
Thanks to you both, we do use a lot of buffers and the systems are used alot. The frequency of change of seals is based on historical data, however do you think this it is accpetable to recieve basic training to perform the above, i.e. are we wasting money by paying an engineer £700 (not including parts) to complete the service of each instrument?
Thanks
Chris
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By Jason on Friday, August 13, 2004 - 07:30 am:
You are paying almost $1300(US) for a basic PM visit, not including parts? Seems quite high for just travel and labor. Modern pump seals are much more rugged than the old days, and you can easily get 6 months out of them with a little care on your part. Pistons really do not need to be changed until they fail. Again, with a little care they can last years. The one area I would make a little more stringent is the rotor seal. Again, with a little care they can last a long time, but most of the problems with AS's can be traced to the rotors. It is also important to inspect the parts when you change them out to see if indeed they look like they need to be change, that way you could adjust your maintenance schedule to reflect the actual need for it.
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By David Blais on Monday, August 16, 2004 - 04:53 am:
Chris,
One thing to consider before you decide to forgo the maintenance service and receive basic training on HPLC maintenance...will you have enough time to perform the maintenance or make the repair given all the other work you have to do? I would go for the training anyway just to have the knowledge, but it may be that your time is more important and you cannot stop what you are doing to make a repair.
At my last job I used to perform all the maintenance on our 1100s. At my current job, I usually just call for service, but if I know it to be something simple (like changing pump seals), I'll do that myself because I can do it and perform the flow check in less time than it will take to schedule someone to come out.
-David
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By anon on Thursday, August 19, 2004 - 09:01 am:
Our department has > 240 Agilent 1100s. We do the maintenance in-house. We found that the service folks tend to be rushed and do not do quality work consistently. The costs to support the systems is quite low. On average, it runs ~ $1000 to support a system, including PMs and as-fails repairs. Ovall the 1100s are quite robust machines....
We are looking to bring HPLC maintenance in-house rather than paying extortionate service rates. We have identified the following critical parameters (change time in brackets):
Pump:
Change Piston and wash Seals (3 months)
Change Piston rod (6 months)
Autosampler:
Check needle (3 months)
Change Rotor (12 months)
Detector:
Change lamp as necessary
Clean flow cell (6 months)
Oven:
None required
We will complete calibration of the necessary part after the relevant task has been carried out. Has anyone got any comments on the above or additional tasks that must/should be performed.
Thanks
Chris
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Anonymous on Thursday, August 12, 2004 - 12:11 pm:
We have 6 HPLCs here, all Agilent 1050s and 1100s. We don't use buffers that often, and we rinse right after those. We have piston seals lasting over a year, pisons themselves lasting several years or even more, and replace autosampler rotors about twice a year. Needles and seats are replaced when necessary, and we don't bother with flow cell. For the pharmaceutical units, the engineer does this and tests once per year, the others we do when unit needs it, usually longer than a year...
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By David Blais on Friday, August 13, 2004 - 04:39 am:
Chris,
Obviously it depends on what types of HPLCs you use, what types of mobile phases, etc. I would say, if you use buffers and acids minimally (or at least wash thoroughly after each run), you could get 6 months out of the pump seals and easily 12 months out of the piston rods. If the instruments are used often, I would bet the lamps need to be changed after 6 months.
Also, I would look to add some sort of calibration to the column thermostat (oven). Nothing complicated, but just something to check the accuracy at 2 or 3 points.
Good luck.
-David
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Chris on Friday, August 13, 2004 - 06:03 am:
Thanks to you both, we do use a lot of buffers and the systems are used alot. The frequency of change of seals is based on historical data, however do you think this it is accpetable to recieve basic training to perform the above, i.e. are we wasting money by paying an engineer £700 (not including parts) to complete the service of each instrument?
Thanks
Chris
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Jason on Friday, August 13, 2004 - 07:30 am:
You are paying almost $1300(US) for a basic PM visit, not including parts? Seems quite high for just travel and labor. Modern pump seals are much more rugged than the old days, and you can easily get 6 months out of them with a little care on your part. Pistons really do not need to be changed until they fail. Again, with a little care they can last years. The one area I would make a little more stringent is the rotor seal. Again, with a little care they can last a long time, but most of the problems with AS's can be traced to the rotors. It is also important to inspect the parts when you change them out to see if indeed they look like they need to be change, that way you could adjust your maintenance schedule to reflect the actual need for it.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By David Blais on Monday, August 16, 2004 - 04:53 am:
Chris,
One thing to consider before you decide to forgo the maintenance service and receive basic training on HPLC maintenance...will you have enough time to perform the maintenance or make the repair given all the other work you have to do? I would go for the training anyway just to have the knowledge, but it may be that your time is more important and you cannot stop what you are doing to make a repair.
At my last job I used to perform all the maintenance on our 1100s. At my current job, I usually just call for service, but if I know it to be something simple (like changing pump seals), I'll do that myself because I can do it and perform the flow check in less time than it will take to schedule someone to come out.
-David
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By anon on Thursday, August 19, 2004 - 09:01 am:
Our department has > 240 Agilent 1100s. We do the maintenance in-house. We found that the service folks tend to be rushed and do not do quality work consistently. The costs to support the systems is quite low. On average, it runs ~ $1000 to support a system, including PMs and as-fails repairs. Ovall the 1100s are quite robust machines....