Erin Tracy & Jalice Manso
If we continue our journey from the sample inlet downward (see last month's post diving into the injection port), the next part of the instrument is the gold seal. This little disk is tiny, but important.
Big picture orientation – once the drug samples arrive at the lab, we transfer them to smaller glass vials that go onto the GCMS instrument tray. One microliter of the liquid is pulled up via an automated syringe and injected into the instrument port.
The gold seal follows the septum and liner in the injection port. The disk creates a seal between the liner in the inlet and the column in the oven.
A high-quality gold-plated septum provides a leak-free environment:
- Increasing system sensitivity
- Reducing column bleeding
- Preventing loss of analytes during the injection process
The replacement part costs about $50 and it only takes us about two hours to do it ourselves. This maintenance is done about every six months.
With any high throughput machine, things get dirty, things wear out. We're prepared to tackle routine maintenance and troubleshoot instrument issues to keep your sample analysis trucking!