[claporte]

Hello,

I've been working with a Polyscan 61E for about 7 months. It was non-functional when I got here, but I fixed it and had it going for a few months. For a 30 year old instrument it is still produces very reliable data. So if anyone else out there has one with issues I may be able to help you out, as it is becoming more difficult to find parts and service.

Here is my current issue: I cannot the polychromator to "profile" or read intensities. Profiling is lining up the entrance slit for maximum intensity. When I profile, the intensity remains around 6-7%. The monochrometer still works, but it is slow when you are measuring 10+elements.

Some of the things that I have checked:
-The mercury lamp is centered and the pathway is open during a profile.
-An analysis with zinc shows no intensity.
-Nothing blocking the entrance into the polychromator.
-Measured intensities by setting source to FET, Fatigue lamp, and no source and measured without turning on the plasma.
   -I tested FET's (field effect transistors) aka integration card test, and got around10,000.
   -I turned the reader source to none and got values around 7-10, with the highest value being 12 for aluminum.
   -The fatigue lamp source was around the same. (Intensity readings are unitless, but compared to an internal standard of 10000.)

I know the FET's are reading ok, I don't know if the no source or fatigue lamp values are good or not.
If they are good then I can rule out problems with the photomultiplier tubes. Does anyone have experience here with interpreting this diagnostic data?

Tags: polyscan, 61E, ICP, ICP-OES, spectrometer, photomultiplier, low intensity, polychromator, thermo jarrell ash