[3dem] Service FEI Tecnai Polara (Sacha De Carlo)

[Bowman, Valorie D]

Dear All,


That may be a sensible, and cost-effective business approach, but it can be pretty painful for the owners.


Especially when grant reviewers come through and make comments like " Oh, microscopes last forever.  This CM is perfectly good.  There's no need to replace it!" (Verbatim) That perfectly good CM200 went end-of-life 2 years later...


No, we did not get that grant!


Cheers,

Valorie

Valorie Bowman

vdb at purdue.edu
765-494-5643
EM Facility Laboratory Manager/
Senior Research Electron Microscopist
Purdue Cryo EM Facility
Purdue University
________________________________
From: 3dem <3dem-bounces at ncmir.ucsd.edu> on behalf of Sacha De Carlo <sacha.decarlo at dectris.com>
Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2018 12:02 PM
To: Mike Strauss
Cc: 3DEM Mailing List
Subject: Re: [3dem] Service FEI Tecnai Polara (Sacha De Carlo)

Dear Mike,

no, it was a personal opinion that I expressed on the forum. However, since you asked about it, I can refer you to DECTRIS General Terms and Conditions, which state that DECTRIS supports parts of the detectors for up to 5 years after the end-of-life cycle announcement for a given product.

Planned obsolescence is a topic that I was not addressing, but I do understand your concerns.

I was merely asking the community to take business aspects into account if you (plan to) make such request to a manufacturer, because the costs of maintaining hi-tech equipment well beyond the EOL, and not only limited to electron microscopy equipment, cannot be simply ignored. It's not just about the parts, but also support aspects, dependencies, documentation, personnel, etc etc.

Best regards,
Sacha



On Thu, Jul 19, 2018 at 4:59 PM, Mike Strauss <mike at biochem.mpg.de<mailto:mike at biochem.mpg.de>> wrote:
Dear Sacha,

Do your statements represent the policy of Dectris?  Are you planning on abandoning 12-year-old cameras? Planned obsolescence is a major problem for consumers, especially in a consumer society largely driven by companies that profit from intentional design limitations that hobble their own products.  Even in our field...  Are you suggesting this practice is one you espouse?

Surely there is something noble about the 30-year old Edwards evaporator that is making carbon as well today as it did 30 years ago. Or the Zeiss 902 that is sitting in every other pathology department in the world, that has required realignment only twice in the last 25 years, and still takes publication quality images every day.

Thorsten, I sympathise with your plight.  The lack of replacement parts for Polaras is a real problem, and one that is experienced by nearly all labs with operational Polaras. It’s not quite fair to say the Polara is an F30, though.  It has a vastly different cryo-box, and cryogenic components including cold trap and anticontaminator, along with the different holder you mentioned.  It’s worth noting, that all of these components are in the objective region, and a failure in any one of them leaves you unable to operate. Then there are the host of microswitches, and interlock sensors that are not present on the F30s either.  It’s not that simple.

It may be worthwhile, though, to stay in touch with other Polara owners, so you can distribute components when one is decommissioned or scrapped.

I wish you luck.

mike

On 19.07.2018 14:57, Sacha De Carlo wrote:
> I do not represent the opinion of Thermo Fisher, but what you guys are
> asking doesn't make any business sense. There is no ROI in trying to
> maintain the old scopes alive. In our consumer society it makes more
> sense to sell new tools.
>
> Best,
> Sacha

-------
Mike Strauss - former cryoEM Facility Manager
MPI Biochemistry
mike at biochem.mpg.de<mailto:mike at biochem.mpg.de>
tel: +49 89-8578-2474
mob: +49 151 55 308040


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