What happens to MS systems if power is OFF?

[haiedc]

We have both LC/MS and GC/MS in our lab. Power failure is not common, but it happens. I think that it should do harm to the systems, but what can be affected? Please help.
thanks

[jh1]

We have both LC/MS and GC/MS in our lab. Power failure is not common, but it happens. I think that it should do harm to the systems, but what can be affected? Please help.
thanks

2 uncommon things that I know of:

1. When the rough pump goes down if the MSD source/quads stay really hot you have the potential to suck oil vapors from the rough pump into the source chamber.

2. We've had a circuit board die when an instrument was left on during a power failure and a surge went through the lines when power was restored.

[JGK]

Does you lab have an emergency power supply (diesel generator etc)?

between power failure and emergency generator activalion any data aquisition will stop.

You also run the risk of power surges when the generators "kick in" or when you switch back to mains power.

For this type of system, our lab has each machine equiped with a UPS unit (with current smoothing) to ensure data acquisition is unaffected by mains interruption.

[giacomo56]

It all depends on which system you have or will buy, some vendors have anti-suck up valves in them so that fumes don't back up into the Vacuum chamber...some don't....you will have to check.

It's always a good Idea to have these expensive systems on a UPS (un-interuupted power supply) ...so you don't blow boards...it also avoids power spikes and the like.

[Don_Hilton]

The UPS is the best for maintaining up-time. But the cost is up there too. An alternative is to be sure that your rough pump has an anti-back streaming valve and to use a power conditioner. The power conditioner is not cheap either, but costs less than the UPS.

Even without the lights going out, spikes on the line eat instruments. Some locations have "dirty" power and the addition of a line conditioner reduces the number of service calls made.

Some kind of protection on the pump and line are dictated by the value of your equipment. The additional step of going to a UPS is dictated by the time value of your data.