Chromatography Forum

After being going on vacation for a week, of course I come back and find a problem with my GC-MS! I can't get the turbomolecular pump to come up to speed. It hits about 67% and then stalls. Eventually, it appears to shut off, then I get a message log error: Turbomolecular Controller Fault Occurred. Any thoughts??

I have vented the system and going in to take a look. I haven't really performed maintenance on a turbopump before. If anyone has successfully dealt with this error message before, any help would be greatly appreciated.

-Aaron

Sounds like a turbopump, forepump, or major air leak problem.

rubyfan,

The fact that your turbo is showing some speed but not getting to speed suggests to me that you have a large leak. My experience with turbo's is that failure is catastrophic (bearings or blades for example) so your experience suggests leak. Especially after being gone for a bit.

Best regards.

We are actually going to replace the turbo controller and see if that helps... After removing the pump completely yesterday, I notice the blades still spin very well. I don't think the bearings are gone. All my seals look good, I don't think it's a leak. I'm hoping it's the controller, since that would still be under warranty for us...

Don't forget the forepump. If it's not pulling a strong enough vacuum (ex. broken coupler), the turbo won't be able to handle it. Try swapping it with another as a quick check.