By now you are probably thinking surely things couldn\u2019t get any worse, well guess again.\u00a0 I relocated to a larger more professional lab setup.\u00a0 No David (Innovative Technology, Inc.), my lab is not in a business incubator (tard) but might as well be given the money I\u2019ve spent in UHP nitrogen and repairs on this box of yours.\u00a0 The box was shut down for the move and the manual that was supplied had no instructions on shutdown.\u00a0 That led to yet more problems (e.g. a saturated oxygen sensor), still I have to say that Innovative Technology, Inc. did step up to the plate here and sent me a replacement component.\u00a0 I\u2019ll go one step further here and say that it would have made sense for me to double check with them to make certain nothing was amiss.\u00a0 If this sort of behavior had continued (i.e. them paying for defects\/etc. directly caused by them) then I wouldn\u2019t be writing this blog.\u00a0 Not long after taking care of that issue one of the solenoid valves on the catalyst bed went.\u00a0 Mind you this unit was not much more than 1 year old and the replacement was only around $700. \u00a0This is when I had my dry box epiphany.\u00a0 All the leakage (gas wise) was through connections to these solenoid valves.\u00a0 My solution (after many hours of testing, telephone calls, etc.) was to replace the junk push in tubing connections (remember the tubing that ruptured earlier) with Swagelok components.\u00a0 This greatly reduced (but did not completely eliminate) the leakage problems.\u00a0 Oddly enough, during one of numerous conversations with one of the technicians at Innovative Technology, Inc. I was told that the design was less than perfect and that a cost effective solution would be to have dedicated air pressure going to these solenoid valves instead of the standard setup where UHP nitrogen pressure (also used as the box working gas) activates the solenoid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By now you are probably thinking surely things couldn\u2019t get any worse, well guess again.\u00a0 I relocated to a larger more professional lab setup.\u00a0 No David (Innovative Technology, Inc.), my lab is not in a business incubator (tard) but might … Continue reading