Keith Burke, Supervisor in the Laboratory at the left. Joel Antunez (Mechanical Engineer) is shown on the right.
Solving problems and repairing equipment saves the department from the expense of service contract or hiring external help to make repairs. There is one contract for centrifuges and for the autoclaves. Assistance is required from OFS (Office and Facilities Services, formerly PPD) to solve problem within the buildings on plumbing, roof leaks, exhaust hood failures, etc.
Examples -- The electronic board to the left is from a top loading balance.The balance had been contaminated with chemicals (see the spot at the yellow arrow). The chemical shorted out the circuit and prevented the balance from working. After carefully cleaning and drying of the card the balance functioned.
There were several of problems with the building 95 vacuum breakers. The breakers prevent contaminated water from being drawn up into the drinking water and are required. The breakers contain floats which were replaced with light weight floats but that did not solve the problem. Water continued to flow over the side of the vacuum breaker and sometime across the electrical outlet. Now an overflow cap is fastened to each breaker with an over flow to the drain.
Emergency Showers are checked periodically as required. When the new showers in building 95 were being tested the cord used to stop the flow of water appeared to break. Actually the 'knot' at the end of the off cord was not secure. All of the new shower cords have been modified to prevent future failures. The ends of the nylon cords have been heat fused to make a secure lock.
Normally a cooling bath for a rotary evaporator would have used a glass coil from a chiller to mediate the need for excessive dry ice. A thin wall copper tubing was constructed as an effective substitute for glass.
There are a variety of motors used for centrifuges, vacuum pumps, platform shakers, etc. The motors can often be repaired by replacement of inexpensive brushes. If the motor is allowed to over heat then the internal wiring may fuse and the motor must be replaced. Rebuilding of motors is often more expensive than replacement.
In addition to repairing broken equipment the electronic shop can design and build printed circuit boards and small electronic boxes to measure or control current and voltages. Recently, a circuit was built for a miniature box to continuously measure the level of human blood sugar.
Dr. Michael D. Johnson explains a need for his research laboratories. Dr. Johnson wants to eliminate the demurrage charges for air cylinders required by equipment. The shop was able to install a direct high pressure air line to his laboratory and to install oil and particulate filters. A similar service was required for the relocation of the Bio Rad FTIR. Several nitrogen generators have been installed.
Joel Antunez designed and construction of the stabilize r frame for the Flammable cabinets as well as the the copper insert for a cooling bath. The stacked cabinets use a replaceable welded steel frame to keep the cabinets in place. The frame can be removed and used for any set of similar cabinets.
Special testing protocol are shown in this Varian presentation for the 300 MHz NMR in room 130. The photo inserts below shows the repaired main power board (Model 3900C-12) after replacement of four power transistors. The second photo is a new shim power supply which was shipped without a correct ground.
Former students and employees from the Instrumental Repair Shop: Ken Carver, Nathan Tate, Thomas Hanson, Darin Franzon, Aravind Mannarswamyi, Jeremy Standiford, and Jose Chacon. From the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry the following graduate students: Pavel Takmakov, Fabian Rios, Megha Khandelwal, and Praveen Patidar.
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