GC for the pacific

[Rocknroll99]

Hello (I posted this also in the GCMS section but hoping to gain a wider audience here)

I am a long time user of GC and GCMS gear but only have used Aglient and Shimadzu. (but mainly looked at FAMEs and lipids)

I have been asked to help set up a lab in the remote pacific to give the options buying a GCMS.

The scope I have is for a GCMS that will be used for water quality and for standardisation of some plant extracts, some of which are lipophillic in nature, not necessarily FAMEs. Also serum ethanol levels and possible other forensic uses for customs.

What GCMS should I be looking at? Needs to be reliable and easy to use
Aglient 7890 + Single quad MS?
Shimadzu?
Thermo? Waters? Bruker? others

I am not really that familiar with the brands and have no idea what kind of support for the wider pacific. I am based in NZ.

Any help here would be great. thanks in advance.

[Poly Styrene]

Is the laboratory located on a remote island, or near any major city in NZ?
If the former, I would recommend discussing the availability/cost of technical assistance at the location first and base my decision on that information. If we are talking about a really remote location, sending a field engineer might be a very expensive ordeal and it's probably a good idea to primarily look at systems which you have previous experience with. Sounds like a fun project though.

[Peter Apps]

Remote support from the manufacturers is going to be critical - their service engineers must be willing and able to troubleshoot remotely via e-mails or whatever. Alternatively you write the high cost of service visits into the budget and live with the delays caused by the time it takes technicians to get to site.

This will not be a plug in and play operation. Local staff must have the skills and brains to do routine service and maintenance (certainly up the the level of source cleaning) and troubleshooting, and to install and re-install software.

Utilities must be upgraded to provide clean power; a UPS system with the output completely isolated from mains power and its fluctuations, with a backup generator on autostart. These MUST be installed by an specialised electrician. They need routine servicing.

The lab must be air conditioned, and the air conditioners must run from the generator if mains goes down (they do not need to be on the UPS). Fridges and freezers must run from the generator.

Good luck.

Peter

[Rocknroll99]

Is the laboratory located on a remote island, or near any major city in NZ?
If the former, I would recommend discussing the availability/cost of technical assistance at the location first and base my decision on that information. If we are talking about a really remote location, sending a field engineer might be a very expensive ordeal and it's probably a good idea to primarily look at systems which you have previous experience with. Sounds like a fun project though.

Thanks for the info, We are in the islands, I am not even sure that the lab is going to be air conditioned yet. Thanks for the advice

[Rocknroll99]

Remote support from the manufacturers is going to be critical - their service engineers must be willing and able to troubleshoot remotely via e-mails or whatever. Alternatively you write the high cost of service visits into the budget and live with the delays caused by the time it takes technicians to get to site.

This will not be a plug in and play operation. Local staff must have the skills and brains to do routine service and maintenance (certainly up the the level of source cleaning) and troubleshooting, and to install and re-install software.

Utilities must be upgraded to provide clean power; a UPS system with the output completely isolated from mains power and its fluctuations, with a backup generator on autostart. These MUST be installed by an specialised electrician. They need routine servicing.

The lab must be air conditioned, and the air conditioners must run from the generator if mains goes down (they do not need to be on the UPS). Fridges and freezers must run from the generator.

Good luck.

Peter

Thanks Peter, Great points. Really helpful

[Alfonso]

Hello,

My name is Alfonso Madrigal and i work for AAS and we provide service to all analytical instrumentation. We also offer services such as custom laboratory development. We can definetly help you out with this project, if you would like to receive a quote from us please feel free to contact me directly at amadrigal@aasystems.com

Here is a link to our website: http://www.aasystems.com/

Thank you,

Alfonso Madrigal