Hi Carrie
One thing that most universities do not have to worry about with these systems
is the energy cost to run them. Usually you will have a coldhead or coldfinger
type cooler to cool the liquifier and the purifier the associated compressors
are power hogs and they will be running 24/7. Then you have the water chillers
and regular electrical uses for computers and such.
As for your other questions:
1. Day to Day maintenance. Not much for our system. We have an LN2 purifier
instead of a coldhead 4K one. So every 4 weeks (could go 8 weeks) we swap
the trap and the one we pull out needs to warm up over night and then we
pump and purge it before we swap again. So 45 min to swap and then ~ 3-6 hours
for pump and purge but this can be spread out over those 4 weeks. The coldhead
4K purifiers do an automated warm up/ clean if I am not mistaken. We do look
over things day to day to make sure numbers are all good but this can be done
remotely. Since we have the LN2 Purifier we do have to warm up the liquifier
every 4-6 months because some ice does form but not water ice has to be Nitrogen,
or another lower freezing element, neon has been suggested on here before.
Coldheads need to be swapped out every 1.5 years. The compressors used to
pressure your gas for storage will need yearly maint. of some kind too. We do
check for leaks over the entire system every couple years. Re-vacuum transport
dewars etc too.
2. Yes most systems can be monitored remotely or you can set up cameras to
(we do both). Systems are pretty automated so nights and weekends are not an
issue or holidays for that matter with planning. On our 7 day winter break we
do not touch the recovery system. But do LN2 fills on magnets so still here
for that and for NMR issues since users are still around.
3. Most of the learning is done in figuring out how you want to set it up and
getting the system working the way you want in the beginning. Once you have
things worked out over all it is pretty easy to deal with. I have 2 other staff
members but only one works with the recovery system with me. We spend up to
1-2 hours transferring helium out of the Liquifer to transport dewars and doing
He magnet fills a week.
Hope that helps
Greg
Gregory P. Wylie, Ph.D
NMR Facility Manager
Texas A&M University
Department of Chemistry
P.O. Box 30012
College Station, TX 77843-3255
gpwylie_at_tamu.edu
979.458.0705 (voice)
979.845.4719 (fax)
706.206.0007 (cell)
http://nmr.tamu.edu
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Received on Wed Jan 31 2024 - 10:31:48 MST