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Perkin Elmer 200 Series Binary Pump Problem

Posted: Sat Mar 30, 2019 2:22 pm
by scochrane
Hi folks,

So I have a problem with one of our PE 200 binary pumps. We were seeing something that should have been a sharp peak appearing as a blob over 15 mins during a standard gradient run (20% MeCN to 95% MeCN and then back to 20%). I've managed to trace the problem to just the pump. When I have it run at 10 mL/min 100% Solvent A it is fine and when I have it run at 10 mL/min at 100% Solvent B it is fine. BUT. When I ask it to do a mixture, (e.g. 50:50) it seems to pull solvent exclusively from solvent A at the full flow-rate and not touch solvent B. I figured this out by turning the pump on at 10 mL/min 50:50 A:B and removing the tubing from each solvent bottle for a few seconds. For solvent A, you quickly see it pulling air but nothing happens with solvent B.

Any ideas what the problem could be?

Re: Perkin Elmer 200 Series Binary Pump Problem

Posted: Sat Mar 30, 2019 4:52 pm
by uzman
Did you try lower flow rates ; around 2 or 3 ml/min ?
The gradient valve may not respond to such a high flow rate ( 10 ml/min )

Re: Perkin Elmer 200 Series Binary Pump Problem

Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2019 11:08 pm
by tom jupille
I second uzman's suggestion that it's a proportioning valve problem. That is fairly easy to confirm by running a dwell volume measurement and a "stair step" test. Quick versions of the procedures are buried on our web site:
- https://www.lcresources.com/resources/TSWiz/hs410.htm
Image, and
- https://www.lcresources.com/resources/TSWiz/hs450.htm

Re: Perkin Elmer 200 Series Binary Pump Problem

Posted: Sun Mar 31, 2019 11:10 pm
by tom jupille
I second uzman's suggestion that it's a proportioning valve problem. That is fairly easy to confirm by running a dwell volume measurement and a "stair step" test. Quick versions of the procedures are buried on our web site:
- https://www.lcresources.com/resources/TSWiz/hs410.htm
Image,

and

- https://www.lcresources.com/resources/T ... epTest.gif[/img]