[3dem] Service options for older FEI FEGs - (Re: Service FEI Tecnai Polara)

Thu Jul 19 08:47:30 PDT 2018

Hi, 

Putting aside the business motives of Thermo Fisher for a second, I'd like to continue w/ Sergej's e-mail below. I've worked w/ Tom at TSS Microscopy and his people are excellent. I'm not sure they offer contracts for the higher end microscopes, but I think their only concern/limitation would be getting parts. 

I've also worked with a couple other service contract groups who were willing to cover CM120 level instruments (LaB6/Tungsten). About a year ago they were trying to figure out how to assist w/ higher end microscopes. Given the new climate with Thermo Fisher 'aging out' perfectly good microscopes, they may now be willing to support more complex systems. 

Both of these companies offer service in Florida and I believe most or a lot of the US. I've cc'd the people I've worked with and hopefully they can reply with more detailed information. 

https://www.su-group.com/ 
http://www.theremigroup.com/ 

On the business side of things, Thermo Fisher and other large companies are busy merging in a very permissive regulatory environment. I expect our options to continue to dwindle, but making these outside service groups aware of the need may help. I would think they would want to know that the market is large enough to support a large investment in people and facilities. If anyone has a feeling for how many older FEI FEG's are out there that need service that should help. 

Duncan 

Operations Director 

Beckman Center for CryoEM at Johns Hopkins 
Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine 
725 N. Wolfe Street, Hunterian 716 
Baltimore, MD 21205-2185 
1-410-614-1335 

----- Original Message -----

From: "Sergej Masich" <Sergej.Masich at ki.se> 
To: "Thorsten Mielke" <mielke at molgen.mpg.de> 
Cc: "3DEM Mailing List" <3dem at ncmir.ucsd.edu> 
Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2018 9:25:54 AM 
Subject: Re: [3dem] Service FEI Tecnai Polara 

Dear all, 

I identified recently three companies working with old microscopes. They do not only buy, refurbish and sell pre-owned TEM’s but offer also some service on TEM’s and SEM's. These are: 

https://caeonline.com 
https://www.tssmicroscopy.com 
http://iss-group.co.uk 

Two first companies are American ones but TSS-microscopy has a facility in Vienna as well. The third company is British and I have personally good experience with it. I do not know whether any of these works with Polara. 

Best regards, 

Sergej 

On 19 Jul 2018, at 14:35, Grassucci, Robert < rg2502 at cumc.columbia.edu > wrote: 

Hi Thorsten and All, 
We are going to try and keep our Polara running as long as possible. Our service contract runs out December 31. We are looking for other vendors who would service the Polara. I understand there is one in the UK but am not sure if there are any others. Thermo Fisher says they will do time and materials repairs but we will be at the bottom of the list when it comes to response time. I agree that a Polara is just a Tecnai F30 with a fancy loader designed by Gatan UK. Perhaps now that they are buying Gatan they will have access to the Cartridge loading system part supply and reevaluate their position? That would be nice but I do not hold my breath. Anyone with a Polara found an alternative service company? 
Bob 

-----Original Message----- 
From: 3dem [ mailto:3dem-bounces at ncmir.ucsd.edu ] On Behalf Of Thorsten Mielke 
Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2018 3:38 AM 
To: 3DEM Mailing List < 3dem at ncmir.ucsd.edu > 
Subject: [3dem] Service FEI Tecnai Polara 

Hi and to all Polara operators our there: 

as most of you have already heard , Thermo/FEI terminated the service contracts for the Tecnai Polara. The official reason is that they can't guarantee disposability of cryo spare parts inside the Polara. I do see this point, however, beside the cryo transfer mechanism a Polara is a Tecnai F30, which is still supported. I thus find it difficult to understand why it seems to be impossible to e.g. downgrade the service contract from a Polara (inculding cryo parts) to a standard F30 (wihtout cryo parts). This kills running systems which are often not easy to replace with later 300 kV scopes e.g. a Titan Krios. I would thus like to ask other Polara users in the field: What are your recent experiences with Thermo/FEI? Will you try to keep your Polara up and running without service contracts. And if so: Any experiences yet with the Thermo/FEI service as costumer without service contract? 

Best, 

Thorsten 

-- 
******************************************* 
Dr. Thorsten Mielke 
- Head Microscopy & Cryo Electron Microscopy Group - 

Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics Ihnestr. 63-73 
D-14195 Berlin 

Tel.: +49-(0)30 8413-1644 
Fax: +49-(0)30 8413-1385 
E-mail: mielke at molgen.mpg.de 

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============================= 
Dr. Sergej Masich 
Quarter B07 
Dept. of Cell and Molecular Biology 
Karolinska Institutet 
171 77 Stockholm, Sweden 
mobile: (+)46 - 736 - 833 693 
e-mail: Sergej.Masich at ki.se 

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