Dear Pat,
I too am shocked by the extra-long lifetimes the current batch of MM
filaments have. I've had filaments in both our instruments (a M007 and
an M007 hf) since August and they are still going strong.
Not long ago I would replace a filament before it blew if I knew there
was an important data collection scheduled on the same instrument. It
used to be 12 - 16 weeks on average, on this occassion it's over 30
weeks for each filament.
Good to see we are getting our money's worth ;)
Mark
_____________________________________
Dr Mark Agacan
Scientific Officer,
Division of Biological Chemistry
and Molecular Microbiology,
Wellcome Trust Biocentre,
College of Life Sciences,
Dow St.,
University of Dundee,
Dundee, DD1 5EH
Tel: +44 1382 388751
Fax: +44 1382 345764
_____________________________________
>>> Patrick Bryant <[log in to unmask]> 28/02/07 1:18 PM >>>
Dear Colleagues,
During more than three years of operation, I have recorded considerable
difference in filament lifetimes on my Micromax007: roughly in the range
500-2000hrs. Some of this may be accounted for by poor manufacture and
Rigaku have, in the past, noticed this problem and replaced some
filaments. For the last three filaments fitted, two have lasted about
500hrs and the third about 2000hrs. These filaments were replacements.
My generator running protocol has been constant throughout.
Interestingly, the filaments show no visible sign of wear or damage
(even the 2000hr one) and are only changed when the generator starts to
shut down on OL or FC limits.
I recall earlier Rigaku generators that would give 2000hrs when well
maintained and they ran at 5.4KW compared to the 800W of the Micromax.
I would be grateful for any comments or suggestions from other Micromax
operators.
Sincerely,
Pat Bryant
Dr Pat Bryant
Senior Experimental Officer
Macromolecular Crystallography Core Facility
Faculty of Life Sciences
Michael Smith Building
The University of Manchester
Oxford Road
Manchester M13 9PT, UK
Phone: +44-161-275-5090/5658
Fax: +44-161-275-1505
email: [log in to unmask]
Intranet:http://www.intranet.ls,manchester.ac.uk/facilities/research/xraycrystallography
Internet:http://www.ls.manchester.ac.uk/research/facilities/xray
|