HPLC Troubleshooting and Maintenance - Practical
1 Day
Run in your own lab this hands on course introduces both theoretical and practical concepts of HPLC troubleshooting and maintenance.
A logical approach to HPLC Troubleshooting and Maintenance is fully explored within this course. Commonly encountered problems and best practice are explored for all major system components including Eluent, Pump, Injection System, Column and Detector.
Troubleshooting separation chemistry, integration of poor peak shape and retention problems are a fundamentally important part of the course, leading to increased awareness of separation chemistry.
- Carrying out user-level maintenance
- Apply preventative maintenance principles to keep instruments online and in optimal condition
- Combining chromatographic and systematic symptom diagnostics to perform required maintenance
- Investigating causes of instrument/chromatogram issues to prevent further issues rather than just treating the symptoms
Instrument problems
- Identifying the issues
Maintenance Schedule Operations
- Pumps – pistons, mixers, check-valve replacement, filters etc.
- Autosamplers – Rheodyne valves, seals, metering devices, needles
- Detectors – Flow cell clean, lamp replacement
Investigative Operations
- Log keeping
- Calibrating Pump Flow
- Calibrating Autosampler volume
- Writing a maintenance process document
Common Calibration
- Calibrating detector wavelength and response
- Testing lamp intensity
- Testing flow cell cleanliness
- Calibration column temperature
Chromatographic Troubleshooting
- Baseline problems
- Peak shape problems
- Retention time drift
- Peak area irreproducibility
Putting it all together
- Maintenance records and schedules
This course is designed for those relatively new to LC and ideally will follow-on from attendance to the Understanding HPLC course. Also recommended for users of LC instrumentation that wish to either gain a deeper understanding of the instrumentation or will carry out routine maintenance in the future.
Some previous knowledge of HPLC and basic experience are recommended but not essential.
HPLC Operator
Understanding HPLC
HPLC Method Development
Calibration and Quantitation