[3dem] cryo TEM holder for autogrids and ThermoFisher/FEI

[Dokland, Terje]

We got the Elsa and had lots of problems with it. The first two they sent us simply did not work: they would not hold the clipring in place. The third one they sent us is the ultrahigh tilt version that has the two blades that clamp the grid down. This system works well. 

The Elsa does hold liquid N2 for much longer, but it also takes much longer to cool down and stabilize. Most troubling is that according to my measurements the drift performance of the Elsa is not as good as the old 626, and the resulting resolution with a test sample was worse. 

Another annoying thing is that the Elsa holder dumps the vacuum on the column every single time it’s inserted. It should be mentioned, however, that we are having the same issue, but less frequent, with the 626, so that could be an airlock problem that Thermo Fisher has so far been unable or unwilling to fix... 

We used the Elsa quite a bit when our 626 was out for repair, but for the most part we prefer the 626 both for ease of use and for performance. 

Terje


  
> On Jun 9, 2021, at 12:51 AM, Tobias Furstenhaupt <furstenh at mpi-cbg.de> wrote:
> 
> Dear colleagues,
> 
> So far we have two 626 Gatan cryoholders but we now look for a new cryo holder for our side-entry Cryo TEM (Titan Halo) to image autogrids. To my knowledge there are two companies offering those holders in the new 'toroid' design with temperature holding time of about 10h:
> 
> - Gatan with its "Elsa" holder for one or three autogrids
> - Simple Origins Model 200 for two autogrids
> 
> does anybody of you know other sources? Do you have any experiences with the the Elsa or 200? We tested the latter for two weeks and it works as promised without problems.
> 
> cheers 
> Tobias 
> 
> 
> ----------------------------------- 
> Tobias Fürstenhaupt, PhD 
> head of Electron Microscopy 
> Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics (MPI-CBG) 
> Pfotenhauerstrasse 108 
> 01307 Dresden, Germany 
> 
> mail: furstenh at mpi-cbg.de 
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