[3dem] Coolant Container of FEI Vitrobot (Tillmann Pape)

[Goldie Ken]

Dear Tillmann,

We have a Vitrobot Mark IV and have experienced the same problems with the
black plastic coolant containers. This is a known problem and FEI seem to
have come up with a solution by producing a new version made from
polystyrene foam. We received one of these from them recently and are happy
with its performance. As it is less than a month old we cannot comment on
its long term usable lifetime but I expect it should not crack from being
exposed to cryogens. Being polystyrene it may be a little more fragile if
mistreated but should be fine if your users are trained in its proper care.


Best wishes

Ken




___________________________________________________
 
Ken Goldie, Ph.D.
Center for Cellular Imaging and Nano Analytics (C-CINA)
at the Department of Biosystems Science and Engineering (D-BSSE)
Structural Biology and Biophysics, Biozentrum,
WRO-1058, Mattenstrasse 26
University Basel, CH-4058 Basel, Switzerland

http://c-cina.org

___________________________________________________
 
 

 



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Coolant Container of FEI Vitrobot (Tillmann Pape)




Message: 1
Date: Mon, 22 Feb 2010 17:08:40 +0000
From: Tillmann Pape <t.pape at imperial.ac.uk>
Subject: [3dem] Coolant Container of FEI Vitrobot
To: 3dem at ncmir.ucsd.edu
Message-ID: <70B10B97-3FF5-4A86-99AA-5853F06A355A at imperial.ac.uk>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed

Dear all,

I would like to enquire within the community about their experience
with the black plastic coolant container of the FEI Vitrobot.

We (with a Vitrobot Model Mark III) have not very good experience
concerning their lifetime. Again and again we experience very quickly
some initial cracks upon cooling that grow quite quickly within a few
months to a sizeable leak of liquid N2, making the whole device not
very user-friendly anymore and as well a bit of an safety hazard,
especially for less experienced users. Moreover, the replacement
prize is quite high.

I was wondering if anybody has had similar experiences and I am
curious of how they have dealt with this situation.

Many thanks in advance for your feedback.

Kind wishes,

Tillmann


EM Centre
Imperial College London
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